Why Diana will always be the Queen of Hearts

The Peoples' Princess

Diana first captured the hearts of the people during her six-week tour of Australia and New Zealand with Prince Charles in 1983, thanks to the kindness and warmth she showed to those she met. Crowds swarmed around her, and in biographer Sarah Bradford’s book, Diana, she quotes a bodyguard saying that Diana’s reception in Australia was akin to Beatlemania.

In her Panorama interview, Diana said she wanted to be a queen of people’s hearts – and Paul says, “She really loved people and interacting with them. It was something in who she was – she was magic.”

On the day of her death, Diana was dubbed the “people’s princess” by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said, “She was a wonderful, and a warm, human being. Though her own life was often sadly touched by tragedy, she touched the lives of so many others, in Britain and throughout the world, with joy and with comfort ... She was the people’s princess, and that’s how she will stay.”

Committed charity work

Diana found a role as a humanitarian and used her position to bring attention to causes that weren’t spoken about publicly. Paul says, “It was something she felt she had to do – she didn’t do it for attention or fame. She was just someone who genuinely cared about making the world a better place.”

In 1987, she made headlines by shaking hands with AIDS patients at the Landmark AIDS Centre in London, and later became the patron of the National AIDS Trust.

She was also passionate about children’s welfare and became patron of the Great Ormond Street Hospital, regularly visiting children diagnosed with cancer.

And shortly before her death in 1997, in what is now an iconic photograph, Diana famously walked through a live minefield in Angola as part of her campaign against landmines. Her trip is credited with boosting the push for a global landmine treaty, which was signed later that year.

Stealing the show

Diana wasn’t just popular with the public – she had lots of famous friends, too. She became pals with Sir Elton John, after meeting at Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 1981, and hit it off instantly.

When she died, Elton changed the words to his hit single Candle In The Wind, originally about Marilyn Monroe, in tribute to her and performed it at her funeral. She was also friends with George Michael, Liza Minnelli and Freddie Mercury – and, in 1985, Diana delighted fans when she danced with Saturday Night Fever star John Travolta at the White House during a visit.

Reminiscing about the moment, John said, “I approach her, touch her elbow, invite her to dance. She spins around and gives me that captivating smile, just a little sad, and accepts my invitation. And there we were, dancing together as it were a fairytale.”

Paul says, “She was glamorous, beautiful and had lots of friends – but she didn’t court fame. She didn’t try to be a superstar, she just was.”

Devoted to her boys

Diana, who worked as a nanny before marrying Charles, pushed the boundaries of what was expected of the mother of heirs to the throne – she chose her sons’ names and took nine-month-old William with her and Charles on their tour of Australia and New Zealand. She also didn’t homeschool her sons – William became the first future royal to be educated in the public school system.

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She also hugged them in public and requested bodyguards were not constantly present, to make life as ‘normal’ as possible. In 1995, she said, “Most importantly, [my role is] being a mother and a wife. That’s what I try to achieve.” She later said, “I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.” Reflecting on his mother, Prince Harry said, “She was a very loving, caring mother and an incredibly funny person.”

A fashion icon

Diana was posthumously named by Time magazine as one of its All-Time 100 fashion icons, which began at her wedding to Prince Charles, aged just 20, in 1981. Her iconic wedding gown, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, became a sensation. It helped inspire the ’80s puff-sleeve trend and featured a 25ft (7.6m) sequin-encrusted train.

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Her fashion sense was individual, bold and risky – she was the first female member of the royal family to wear trousers to evening events. Her hairstyle, with its layers and flicks, also influenced the hair trends of the ’80s and ’90s. Diana’s £900 black cocktail dress, which she wore to a dinner in 1994, became known as the “revenge dress”. She wore it on the night Prince Charles admitted he was having an affair.

Read more in this week's Closer magazine, out now