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Read More: The Princess and the Paparazzi: How Diana’s Death Changed the British MediaĪt a speech in December 1993, Diana said that she knew starting a public life would entail media attention but she didn’t realize just how much of her private life would be scrutinized, too.
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She also spoke openly about her disdain of being endlessly pursued by paparazzi once, yelling out to a photographer who took a picture of her leaving a movie theater in 1993: “ you make my life hell.” In 1993, Diana sued Mirror Group Newspapers for publishing pictures of her working out in a gym. The British paparazzi earned a reputation for closely following Diana’s every move she was one of the most photographed people in the world and snapshots of her could sell for lucrative prices-hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece. I don’t think it would happen today.” He later, reflecting on the occasion, said that he was “ very glad” to have been part of the day. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. “My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television,” he told Newsweek in a 2017 interview.
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Prince Harry had previously spoken out about how difficult walking behind his mother at the funeral procession was. He called the procession “the most horrifying half an hour of my life.” It was a “ bizarre and cruel thing,” he said, explaining that he had pushed for the duo not to have to do so. Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, told British media in 2017 that he had been lied to by palace courtiers about the two princes, then 12 and 15, wanting to walk behind their mother’s coffin at the internationally televised funeral. The same people that chased her into the tunnel photographed her dying on the backseat of that car,” he said in the 2021 Apple TV+ documentary The Me You Can’t See. “ I was so angry with what happened to her-and the fact that there was no justice at all. In recent years, Prince Harry, one of Diana’s two sons, has spoken more openly about his grief. Read More: The 5 Biggest Takeaways From HBO’s New Diana Documentary, The Princess Mary Francis, an aide to the Queen, told Newsweek in a 2017 interview that she believed the family was “ somewhat slow, perhaps, to recognize the need to step forward in their public role of showing leadership for the country in its grief about the death of the princess.” “In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.”īut the delay in acknowledgement raised scrutiny among some in the British public. She was an exceptional and gifted human being,” she said in a speech broadcast to the nation. The Queen’s first public address came five days after Diana’s death. Charles would later marry Parker Bowles in 2005, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip not in attendance.ĭiana and Prince Charles officially divorced in 1996. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” she said, referring to Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. He has also criticized what he says was the royal family’s disapproval of Diana and Dodi’s relationship, citing Dodi’s heritage and Muslim faith.ĭiana had publicly discussed her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, to the Palace’s disapproval, admitting in a bombshell interview with BBC journalist Martin Bashir in 1995 that both had extramarital affairs. Read More: TIME’s Original 1997 Special Report on Princess Diana’s Deathįayed’s father, Mohamed al-Fayed, had previously claimed that Diana was pregnant with his son’s child but that has since been disproven by a forensic inquiry. Her brother, Charles Spencer, described his sister as “ the most hunted person of the modern age”-referring to the press constantly trailing her.
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Their fascination with Diana was in part due to her colorful and daring fashion style but also because of the ways she broke from royal tradition.ĭiana’s close family members have maintained their strong criticism of the paparazzi. That hasn’t stopped wider scrutiny of the press’ role in hounding Diana and her family.
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An extensive 2006 Scotland Yard investigation determined the crash was a “tragic accident.” But in April 2008, a British jury ruled that the driver and paparazzi were both to blame for grossly negligent driving. Prosecutors later revealed that the driver, Paul, had a blood alcohol level three times above the country’s legal limit. Many initially blamed the paparazzi for causing the crash but a French judge cleared them of wrongdoing in 1999.
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