In Pictures: Remembering Diana on 22nd anniversary of her death
Diana – the mother of princes William and Harry – died in a car crash in 1997.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash 22 years ago this weekend.
The ex-wife of heir to the throne the Prince of Wales, Diana was the mother of Princes William and Harry, now the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex.
Known for her humanitarian and charity work and her compassion, Diana brought a more touchy-feely approach to the royal family.
Her fairytale wedding on July 29 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral was watched by a television audience of hundreds of millions and turned the self-dubbed “Sloane Ranger” into a world superstar.
Around 650,000 people gathered on the streets of London to catch a glimpse of the bride and groom, and 750 million across the world watched the events on TV.
Diana became the most photographed woman on the planet, and was known for her fashion sense.
Yet even on their honeymoon, all was not well behind the scenes.
As they holidayed on the Royal Yacht Britannia, Diana was furious when she noticed Charles wearing a pair of gold cufflinks engraved with interwoven Cs – a present from his former flame Camilla Parker Bowles, and her fears grew that he was still in love with Camilla.
The young princess, who was only 20, found she had little in common with her philosophical 32-year-old husband, who liked painting, reading non-fiction essays, and hunting.
Their second child Harry – a spare to the heir – was born in 1984, and Diana was a devoted mother to her sons.
The princess found the palace courtiers unapproachable, and was overwhelmed by her role as a royal superstar.
She was fighting personal demons like her battle with bulimia, and was wracked by insecurities, doubting her own worth as a member of the royal family.
The marriage was effectively over by the end of the 1980s but the royal couple tried to keep up the public pretence.
However, the growing distance was clear to see, especially on royal tours – with Diana sitting alone at monument to love, the Taj Mahal in India, and Charles attempting to kiss his wife but colliding with her ear at the Jaipur Polo Club.
A disastrous tour of South Korea by the ill-at-ease prince and princess took place in November 1992.
Charles later confessed to an affair in an interview and book with Jonathan Dimbleby, and then Diana gave a Panorama television interview in which she said of her relationship with Charles “there were three of us in this marriage” and questioned his suitability as king.
It prompted the Queen to urge them to divorce, which they finally did in 1996.
The princess had become known over the years for championing the disadvantaged, from those with Aids to the homeless.
She helped break the stigma surrounding Aids and HIV by shaking hands with a terminally ill patient and kissing him on the cheek at Mildmay Hospice in east London.
In the wake of her divorce, Diana campaigned to outlaw landmines, visiting mine fields in Angola and travelling to Bosnia.
The Mercedes she was travelling in with her lover Dodi Fayed was being pursued by paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel in Paris, when it crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, while being driven by chauffeur Henri Paul, who was drunk and driving too fast.
When the Queen initially remained at Balmoral to comfort her grandsons, the newspaper headlines screamed: “Show us you care” and “Where is our Queen? and “Where is her flag?”.
The flag pole at Buckingham Palace had remained bare, as was the protocol, because the Queen was away in Scotland.
A young William and Harry walked behind their mother’s coffin as it proceeded through the streets on its way to Westminster Abbey.
Harry, now the Duke of Sussex, revealed in the run up to the 20th anniversary how he came close to a breakdown after not speaking about the loss of his mother for many years.
