Diana’s 60th birthday: Key moments in the princess’ life

The Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex are preparing to honour their mother Diana, Princess of Wales by unveiling a statue on Thursday on what would have been her 60th birthday.

Diana was 36 when she was killed in car crash in Paris on August 31 1997 when she was being pursued by the paparazzi.

Before the royal wedding

Diana’s appeal began almost from the moment she appeared on the world stage as an awkward, shy teenager in the early 1980s.

Although hailed as a “commoner” when she began dating Charles, Lady Diana Spencer was a member of the aristocracy, born into a privileged family that had close connections to the royals.

The big day

Diana’s wedding to Charles was billed as a true life fairy tale.

Dressed in her Emanuel silk taffeta wedding gown with its billowing sleeves and huge train, the new Princess of Wales shared a kiss with Charles on the palace balcony – a departure from royal protocol.

Mother to William and Harry

Diana adored her sons William and Harry, and tried to offer them as normal and as fun a life as possible.

The princess also sought to educate her boys about those less fortunate, and would take them to Centrepoint hostels as children to show them the plight of the homeless.

Shaking hands with Aids patients

The princess helped break the stigma surrounding Aids and HIV when she was photographed shaking hands, without gloves, with an Aids patient at the Middlesex Hospital in London in 1987

She championed victims of the disease when there was a widespread fear the illness could be passed on by touching.

The marriage breakdown

Behind the scenes, all was not well in Charles and Diana’s relationship.

The princess found the palace courtiers unapproachable, and was overwhelmed by her role as a royal superstar.

She was fighting personal demons such as bulimia, and was wracked by insecurities, doubting her own worth as a member of the royal family.

The growing distance between Charles and Diana began to be apparent on royal tours – with Diana sitting alone at the monument to love, the Taj Mahal in India in February 1992.

On the same trip, Charles attempted to kiss his wife but collided with her ear at the Jaipur Polo Club.

They were nicknamed The Glums and a month later it was announced they were separating.

Panorama

Charles later confessed to an affair in an interview and book with Jonathan Dimbleby.

Diana then gave a Panorama television interview to Martin Bashir in 1995 in which she said of her relationship with Charles “there were three of us in this marriage”, questioned his suitability as king and admitted adultery herself.

Diana’s appearance prompted the Queen to urge the Waleses to divorce, which they finally did in 1996.

People’s Princess 

Diana brought a more touchy-feely approach to the royal family.

Whereas the Queen and the rest of the Windsors were often perceived as remote and out of touch, Diana was seen as bridging the divide between the monarchy and the public.

The post-divorce photo shoot

A Vanity Fair photo shoot in 1997 with celebrity photographer Mario Testino reinvented the princess style-wise and redefined her life post-divorce.

Landmines

In the wake of her divorce, Diana campaigned to outlaw landmines, walking through mine fields wearing a protective visor and vest in Angola, and travelling to Bosnia to meet victims of the weapons in 1997.

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.

A 15-year-old William and Harry, 12, walked behind their mother’s coffin as it proceeded through the streets on its way to Westminster Abbey.