20 years ago, on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris. However, she still arouses interest in her personality

Journalist for the British portal Belfast Telegraph Chrissy Russell tried to figure out why Lady Di attracts public attention even 20 years after her death.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, ITV released a documentary film D Iana, Our Mother: Her Life and Her Legacy. On July 24, the premiere of the frank film, in which Princes William and Harry shared memories of their mother, was watched by more than 7 million people.

Celebrities such as Piers Morgan and Naomi Campbell expressed their admiration for the film, and the hashtags "Diana" and "Diana Documentary" topped trends on Twitter.

On August 6, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary Diana: First hand story, dedicated unhappy marriage and the divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Di. This picture also attracted millions to their screens.

But why is Princess Diana so popular for so many years after her death? Do Princes William and Harry really have anything more to say about their mother than that they love her and miss her? Are these shiny dresses from the exhibition? Diana: the history of her style can they tell you anything about their owner? Hardly.

Today we live in a confessional society where anyone can find out almost everything about any other person. No personal details or dirty secrets will escape television, the press or social networks today.

Diana Spencer lived in a different era. She died three years before the reality show aired. Big Brother and almost 10 years before the advent of Twitter. To some extent, she marked the beginning of a public outpouring of her soul (it is worth recalling Diana’s interview for the BBC program Panorama), but passed away before the world was engulfed in a wave of stellar revelations.

We will never be able to recognize Diana as we do today's celebrities. We won't be able to follow her on social media, she won't share her iPhone video, we won't see her morning tweet about her fight with Camilla Parker-Bowles. It is precisely for the reason that Diana herself will not tell details about her life that people are so interested in this information on television channels and in the media.

On the other hand, Princess Diana still captivates the world thanks to the image that people remember from the 90s. Would we be interested in a 56-year-old grandmother who would go shopping and help Kate and William with the children? Another thing is the active 36-year-old beauty, who manages to sunbathe in a swimsuit on a yacht in France and do charity work.

In addition, the intense interest in Lady Di's person can be explained by her rebellious and romantic nature. She loved her husband and children, and at the same time she was a real revolutionary: she walked through a mine field in Bosnia, shook hands with AIDS patients, spent evenings talking friendly with homeless people on the streets.

Now we are already accustomed to the fact that members of the royal family can be ordinary people(for example, Harry played volleyball with war heroes), but a few decades ago, seeing a princess in an amusement park for ordinary people was a pleasant shock.

Unfortunately, Princess Diana's popularity is not due solely to admiration for her personality. Many people are so interested in the fate of Lady Di because of schadenfreude. Even subconsciously.

Diana had a fairytale wedding with the prince, money and power, traveling the world, access to all the fashionable outfits... But all this was lost, Diana suffered from eating disorders, went through a divorce, endured the hunt of the paparazzi and knew that Charles loved another.

One way or another, many of us sometimes feel schadenfreude towards members of the privileged class of society who fail or suffer.

Even Princess Diana's personal bodyguard admitted that he once allowed her to be nervous for extra minutes noisy crowd in line at the airport before leading her to safety.

Whatever the reason, people are not interested in Diana, we will always be captivated by stories about love and loss, relationships and rivalries, beauty, ideals, the impetus of life and other aspects inherent in humanity. Diana's story is a human one, so there is always something to learn from it.

The People's Princess, third out of a hundred on the list of the greatest Britons in history - Princess Diana - enjoyed the boundless love of her subjects. They idolized her and envied her, because the scenario of her life resembled a fairy tale: kind and beautiful girl married a real prince and settled with him in the palace... Only the heroes will live happily ever after real fairy tale Did not work out. The story was ideal only from the outside, but it ended with the death of the one whom they sympathized with the most in this couple.

Diana died in a car accident on August 31, 1997 in Paris, and this year, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the tragic event, the princess is remembered with particular reverence. We have prepared material about the versions of what happened that appeared in different time and excited the minds of the princess's fans. You can learn more about the life and death of the Queen of Hearts from the new documentary film “Princess Diana: Tragedy or Conspiracy,” which will be shown from August 29 to 31 at 10:00 pm on the TLC channel.

Misalliance and adultery - these two words haunted Charles and Diana throughout their entire life. family life. According to contemporaries, Miss Spencer, despite her noble origins, was not distinguished by a brilliant mind and was rather hasty in her decisions, one of which later completely changed her fate. Diana first met Charles 20 years before her death: in 1977, he came hunting at the Spencer family estate, Althorp House, at the invitation of her father. The prince already had the reputation of a heartthrob, but Diana was only 16 and Charles was not interested in her, and she herself had no time for romance: the future princess was preparing to enter college.

Princess Diana, 1980

The marriage of a 19-year-old lover of tabloid novels and a mature 33-year-old man, infatuated with another woman, was initially doomed to failure: behind the perfect glossy façade, suicide attempts, mutual infidelity, hysterics and eating disorders were hidden, which would become known only years later. Diana called her marriage “crowded,” meaning her husband’s love for Camilla Parker-Bowles, who later became his second wife. It is precisely betrayal that supporters of the “conspiracy theory” call the cause of the princess’s death: biographers testify that Diana cheated on her husband at least ten times and the royal family did not forgive her for this.

The accident is just a staged act

On August 31, 1997, when Lady Di's Mercedes crashed into a support of the Alma tunnel in Paris, the cameras were not working there, although the equipment was working on other roads in the city. This is just one of the many mysteries and oddities associated with the deaths of driver Henri Paul, Diana and her lover Dodi Al-Fayed, whom the press still awkwardly calls “friend.” According to one version, the Egyptian producer’s personal bodyguard, Ken Wingfield, was supposed to take the wheel, and not Henri Paul, the head of security at the Ritz Hotel, where the lovers spent the last evening of their lives together. Dodi and Diana were unable to be alone - the couple was besieged by a crowd of paparazzi, and Paul accelerated the car three times faster than allowed when driving through the tunnel in order to break away from the annoying reporters on motorcycles.

The driver lost control due to a difficult traffic situation - this version looks much more plausible than many mysteries associated with the accident, but a considerable number of people believe that everything that happened that night on the Seine embankment was nothing more than a re-enactment. Thus, the lovers decided to simply once and for all avoid the attention of strangers to their personal lives, which they had more than received. All this, perhaps, could sound plausible if you do not take into account the personal investigation of Dodi’s father, Mohammed Al-Fayed, who is still unsuccessfully trying to find out how his son died.

Dodi Al Fayed and Princess Diana

The driver is at fault

The driver, Henri Paul, was unknown to anyone before the accident. But after what happened, there were those who called him a pawn in the game powerful of the world this, an MI6 agent who set up the accident, a drug addict who took a huge dose of antidepressants, and a drunkard who got behind the wheel after drinking at least three bottles of wine. Fields was considered the culprit of the accident and was cursed for the death of the people's favorite, until it turned out that the head of the French investigators, Jacques Mules, who was investigating the case, out of fatigue, mixed up the test tubes with blood in the laboratory. In addition, people who knew Henri denied both drunkenness and drug addiction - although the judges did not consider this evidence of the driver’s innocence, nor did Mules’ admission of substitution.

Diana's car after the accident

Soldier N

It was no coincidence that Diana died in an accident on the Seine embankment - she was killed, and not by anyone, but by the British intelligence services. This sensational version of the cause of Lady Di’s death shook up the world media 16 years after the tragedy. A certain military man, whom the press called Soldier N, was put on trial for illegal possession of weapons, which he willingly told the jury about ex-wife. She also said that the ex-husband had repeatedly told their daughter that Diana was killed according to the plan of SAS - the British Special Air Service, and he himself participated in this.

The crown did not react in any way and did not give any comments, although other people put forward this version, including former intelligence officer MI6 Richard Thomplison. In his scandalous autobiographical book, he stated that the accident that killed Diana followed exactly the same scenario as the plan to assassinate Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1992. By the way, the version with Soldier N also appears in the film “Unlawful Murder” by British director Keith Allen, after which another scandal erupted at the Cannes Film Festival, but the mystery of Diana’s death was never revealed.

Ghost rider

One of the main mysteries in the story that happened that night in Paris is the white Fiat Uno, which was allegedly seen at the scene of Diana’s death a couple of minutes before the accident. Various versions are put forward: it could be an unknown British intelligence agent who set up a tragic road accident, or the famous Parisian paparazzi James Andanson, who tracked Diana and Dodi back at the Ritz. The photographer did have a white Fiat, but his wife said James left the car at home that night. At the scene of the accident they found fragments of a broken turn signal and white paint from the car body, but after a large-scale check it was not possible to find a single white Fiat with similar damage.

It was also not possible to find out either the reasons for Andanson’s hasty flight from France to Corsica even before Lady Di died in the Salpêtrière hospital, or the reasons for his subsequent death. Some time after the accident in Paris, Andanson was found sitting in a car in the Pyrenees with a gunshot wound to the head, and all his work tapes and notes had disappeared from the agency for which he worked. What killed him is still unknown exactly - it was assumed that the photographer committed suicide, but no weapon was found next to him that would confirm this version.

Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed

Order from the Royal Family

There will not be a second Diana in the Windsor family - at least as long as Elizabeth II is alive. They say that she personally chooses names for all the heirs of the family, and in particular did not approve of the desire of her grandson, Prince William, to name his mother after his mother. future daughter. The Queen told William and Kate Middleton in no uncertain terms that Lady Di England was enough, and as a result the young princess became Charlotte Elizabeth, with Diana being only her third name, which is very rarely mentioned. The queen's hostility from the point of view of maintaining the status quo of the monarchy is justified: no one in modern history did not cause as many scandals around Kensington Palace as Diana of Wales.

Her conflict with Charles, initially hidden behind the doors of Kensington Palace, for 15 years life together turned into a battle open to the whole world. Diana told reporters about her unsuccessful marriage, and Charles promised in his interviews that he would never leave Camilla. After the publication of the memoirs of Lady Di's former butler Paul Burrell, the spreading horns over the prince's head loomed especially clearly: journalists, one after another, began to write that Harry might be the son not of Charles, but of the red-haired jockey James Hewitt, with whom Diana also had an affair. This has not been proven, but it is known for sure that Elizabeth and Philip were very angry with their daughter-in-law both for this story and for her other adventures, which Diana did not even try to hide, and they certainly did not want to even indirectly become related to the Egyptians, despite their impeccable reputation and a multi-billion dollar fortune.

Princess Diana and James Hewitt

Mohammed Al-Fayed calls the royal family's attitude towards his son Dodi racist and bigoted. According to him, they did not even want to imagine that a native of Egypt, and a Muslim, could become a kind of stepfather for the heirs to the throne, not to mention the fact that the princes could have an adopted brother or sister. Exactly possible pregnancy Diana is cited as another reason for her death: the Windsors supposedly could not allow this to happen and brought British intelligence into the case to kill their pregnant daughter-in-law with the wrong hands.

Whatever actually caused the deaths of Diana, Dodi Al-Fayed and Henri Paul, this accident became a world history, like the whole life of the Princess of Wales - a woman who was just looking for love, like everyone else. The second one in royal family indeed it won’t: 2.5 billion people watched Diana’s funeral live, another 3 million, sobbing, listened to Elton John sing and followed the coffin through the streets of London. So many flowers were brought to the palace that they had to be distributed to hospitals and nursing homes - the queen of hearts, who had been involved in charity all her life, and after her death gave her subjects a farewell gift.

Today marks twenty years since the death of Diana Frances Spencer, whom the whole world remembered as Princess Diana or simply “Lady Di.” On August 31, 1997, the car in which the princess was traveling with her lover Dodi al-Fayed was involved in an accident in the Paris Tunnel. The only one who survived that tragedy - Diana's bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones - does not remember what happened, as he received severe injuries that forever deprived him of his memory. A drunk driver, British intelligence services or just an accident - the exact causes of the accident are still not known. The site's editors recalled five versions of the car accident that could have taken place.

Photo: John Stillwell/FA Bobo/PIXSELL/PA Images/TASS

Paparazzi

The first version of the death is photojournalists on motorcycles. On that fateful day, Diana's black Mercedes was pursued by paparazzi, and one of them may have interfered with the princess's car. The Mercedes driver, trying to avoid a collision, crashed into a concrete bridge support.

However, as it turned out later, the photographers entered the tunnel a few seconds after Diana’s Mercedes, which means they could not provoke an accident. At the same time, the sons of the deceased princess most of all blame reporters and photographers for the death, who did not allow their mother to live in peace until the tragedy.

Mysterious Fiat

The second version is a car that could cut off the princess’s car in the tunnel itself. Allegedly, it was a white Fiat Uno, which eyewitnesses saw leaving the tunnel after the tragedy. And near the accident they even found fragments of a white car. But, even having information about the car and a description of the driver’s appearance, it was not possible to find either the car or the driver.

There is a version that this car belonged to a certain French journalist James Andanson. Immediately after the disaster, the journalist disappeared, and he was found only in 2000 in the French Pyrenees, dead in a burnt car. His death was regarded as suicide, but when he was found, they found traces of gunshots..

Drunk driver, excessive speed and seat belt

The Mercedes that Diana and her companion were in that night was replaced shortly before the trip. In this car, according to some reports, the seat belt in the back seat where Diana was seated was faulty, although the princess herself was always sensitive to the issue of safety.

It was also later discovered that the car was in terrible condition and had been hastily repaired after an accident a few months earlier. In addition, after some time, the driver of the car, Henri Paul, was made the main culprit of the disaster. He was the chief of security at the Ritz Hotel and also died in this disaster. Investigators accused him of driving drunk and accelerating the car to 200 kilometers per hour.

Royal revenge

Photo: Chris Jackson/FA Bobo/PIXSELL/PA Images/TASS

There is a theory that the death of Princess Diana was planned by British agents and Queen Elizabeth II herself. For several years, Diana lived with the idea that Prince Charles and the royal family were going to kill her.

Her guesses, voiced in a letter to the butler, are not direct evidence, but still the very fact of such a letter is very remarkable. The letter said Prince Charles was planning an accident with Diana's car, brake failure and a serious head injury so that his path to remarriage would be clear.

Egyptian enemies

There is a version that the target of the alleged killers was not the princess at all, but her Egyptian boyfriend, the son of billionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed, Dodi.

Dodi's father was the owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris, as well as the London department store Harrod's and the Fullham football club. possible reason The accident could have been revenge on Al-Fayed, but Mohammed himself believed that his business competitors had nothing to do with it, and that British intelligence and the royal family were involved in the tragedy.

Life after death

After Diana's death, mourning was declared in England; a mound of flowers grew near the gates of Kensington Palace, which were brought by many thousands of people in memory of the princess. Diana was buried on September 6, 1997 at the Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire, on a secluded island in the middle of a lake.

“Lady Di” did not cease to be popular even after her death - many famous musical performers wrote songs dedicated to the princess. “No-one but you” by Queen, “Candle in The Wind” by Elton John and many others are dedicated to Diana famous hits. To mark the tenth anniversary of Diana's death, the film "Princess Diana. Last Day in Paris" was made. This year, 20 years after the tragedy, two documentaries were also released: “Diana - Our Mother” and “Diana. Her Story in Her Words.”

Twenty years ago, on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana, an amazing woman who changed the face of the British monarchy, died as a result of a car accident in a Paris tunnel. A woman who is remembered to this day.

The death of Diana became a real grief for hundreds of thousands of people: after her death, the square in front of Buckingham Palace was filled with flowers. People mourned the people's favorite and continued to carry bouquets, following the call of their hearts.


In the photo: a sea of ​​flowers in front of Kensington Palace in memory of Princess Diana, 2013. Photo telegraph.co.uk

And today, twenty years later, people still bring flowers to Kensington Palace, where a beautiful garden was laid out in memory of Diana.

New films about Princess Diana

Despite the fact that no official events dedicated to the anniversary of Diana’s death were planned in the UK, and Prince Charles did not even interrupt his annual leave, like the queen, the sad date did not go unnoticed. The People's Princess is remembered in the news around the world on this day, and several documentaries dedicated to her memory have been released in the UK.

Perhaps the most touching of them is “Diana, Our Mother - Her Life and Legacy Documentary” (“Diana, Our Mother, Her Life and Legacy”). It's amazing, filled with personal memories and sincere emotions a film in which Diana's life and death are told by her adult sons.


In the photo: Princess Diana with her sons. Photo dailymail.co.uk

Despite my skepticism about the idealization of Lady Di’s figure, I couldn’t hold back my tears while listening to the warmth and love with which Harry and William spoke about their mother. After all, for them, Diana was not at all a princess who suffered in an unsuccessful marriage, but a wonderful mother who gave them surprisingly bright, joyful moments.

A few years ago I read the book “Princess Diana. A life told by herself." Turning the pages, I sympathized with Diana, at the same time marveling at her childish naivety, but at the same time I did not understand what made the whole world admire this woman. After all, Diana married not a person, but her dream, a ghostly “prince” from a fairy tale, about whom she knew almost nothing, whose hobbies she did not share and did not understand. And years later, having experienced great disappointment from her husband’s dislike, Diana plunged into the abyss of depression, which turned into attacks of bulimia for her. Surely you have read about this or at least heard about it.

The story of the tragic love triangle Diana, Charles and Camilla are probably known to everyone who has been at least somewhat interested in the fate of Lady Di or new history British monarchy.


In the photo: the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana. Photo dailymail.co.uk

We can endlessly discuss Diana's mistakes as a wife, but it is impossible not to respect her for how much she did for her children. She gave them a childhood full of fun adventures. According to William, there are still rare days in his life when he does not think about his mother and does not regret that she is not around. In that same film, both princes remember how they spent time with their mother, and how much love the world was filled with in her presence. Personally, I burst into tears at the moment when my sons remember their last conversation with Diana, that phone call, when they were rushing about their children's affairs, greatly regretting now that they had not talked to her longer and had not said something important.

Perhaps we can say that Diana destroyed the traditions of restrained upbringing accepted in the royal family, based on distance and respect, but not on love for children. Diana loved and adored her children, and with great joy, which is noticeable in every photograph and every frame of rare surviving videos, she spent time with the boys. It breaks William's heart that he couldn't introduce his mother to his wife and children, imagining what a wonderful grandmother she would have made. Of course, the eldest prince, who has already become a father himself, is trying with all his might to preserve the memory of his mother, telling the children about grandmother Diana. Their house is full of photographs of Lady Di, but they will never replace a living person and his warmth, which the prince immensely regrets.

It is impossible to hear about this without tears. And if you are also remembering Princess Diana these days, find the strength to watch this touching film about the memory kept by her sons.


In the photo: Prince William, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton in the memorial garden on the anniversary of Diana's death. Photo abcnews.go.com

Good deeds of Princess Diana

Of course, on the anniversary of Diana's death, there is a lot of talk about her enormous contribution to charity. Diana was one of the first to draw attention to the problem of AIDS, a disease about which the press preferred to remain silent. Diana visited hospitals, touched AIDS patients, shook their hands, hugged them when not all doctors agreed to do so.

The princess’s contribution to helping the homeless, cancer research and the fight against drug abuse is no less significant. anti-personnel mines. Now, after Diana’s death, her good work is continued by her sons, whom the princess taught to love, respect and support people who have suffered troubles and misfortunes.


In the photo: Princess Diana in a minefield. Photo abcnews.go.com

Another film, the release of which was also timed to coincide with August 31, is dedicated to the circumstances of Diana’s death and the first days after it - “Diana, 7 Days”. Again, a lot of attention in the film is paid to the feelings and emotions of those close to the princess and, first of all, her sons. Princes Harry and William have repeatedly spoken negatively about the paparazzi, accusing them not only of the death of their mother, but also of the indifference and even cynicism with which they filmed the scene of the tragedy instead of trying to help Diana, who was seriously injured, but that’s all is alive.

The latest, although far from new, but probably the first film shown in its entirety in Britain, is Diana: In Her Own Words, based on several videos made by Diana’s teacher oratory, to whom the princess told about problems in her personal life. He kept these recordings and, of course, sold them profitably after the princess’s death. In the frame we see a living, open, vulnerable Diana. This is a rare opportunity to see the true face of a public person. The film is interesting because of the incredible degree of frankness with which Diana talks about her relationship with Charles, how rarely he is in her bedroom, and how cold and even rude he is to her.


Documentary about Diana: "Diana: In Her Own Words"

These days in various documentaries, programs and chronicles talk about Princess Diana so much that it is simply impossible to stay away. And one cannot help but be amazed at how much they loved her for her humanity, kindness, responsiveness and openness, which is not typical for royalty. Princess Diana was loved by many, and the very fact that her memory is still alive 20 years later speaks volumes about how amazing person She was. After all, they didn’t love her for the fairy tale that the life of a “simple” count’s daughter suddenly became (by the way, I still don’t understand why they talk about Diana as Cinderella, because she wasn’t one at all). She was loved for the goodness that this Queen of human hearts radiated and created.

Do you believe that the tragic death of Princess Diana happened 19 years ago? 19 years! But, despite the fact that almost two decades have passed, Princess Diana is still loved by the people. To mark this sad anniversary, let's remember a few facts about "Lady Di".

1. Before she became a princess, she worked in a kindergarten
And even earlier - as a cleaner and babysitter.


2. She always dreamed of becoming a ballerina
But her growth prevented her from doing this.


3. Her sister initially dated Prince Charles
That's why she met him.


4. At 19, she became engaged to a prince.
And when she was 20, they got married.

4. At the age of 19, she became engaged to Prince Princess Diana, facts


5. She was the first person to refuse to recite the obedience to her husband portion of the wedding vow in the history of court weddings.
Kate Middleton later did the same.


6. She strived to give her children a normal childhood.
And she took them everywhere - from Disneyland to AIDS clinics and homeless shelters.


7. She was incredibly generous
And participated in many charitable projects.

8. And also a wonderful sister
According to Diana's brother, Charles, when he went to school, she could not concentrate on her lessons because she was worried about her younger brother, and asked the teacher to let her go to see how he was doing. Isn't it cute?


9. She wasn't a very good student
She failed her final exams twice and repeatedly joked about her "bad" education.


10. Lady Di hated tiaras
They gave her a terrible headache!


11. She was always at odds with the kitchen.
Diana’s personal chef said that she couldn’t cook, no matter what she did.


12. She was a wonderful mother
She once invited Cindy Crawford to Kensington Castle only because she found out that her 13-year-old son was crazy about her.