Why Princess Diana still fascinates us

Legacy continues
Some weeks ago I attended the Concert for Diana at London’s Wembley Stadium and watched as two young men spoke nervously to a crowd of thousands and a TV audience of millions.

Prince William and Prince Harry have grown up since we saw those two young boys walking with great dignity behind the gun carriage carrying their mother’s casket.

On the stage at Wembley they spoke proudly and warmly of their mother — and the crowd embraced them for it.  The cheers that greeted their every appearance seemed to me to speak as much about Diana as of them. They truly are her boys.

The concert was punctuated with video of the princess of Wales doing what she wanted to be best known for — meeting people during her work for charities. 

What struck you was her genuine compassion. In one scene she allows a blind man to move his fingers over her face.  In another she hugs an AIDS patient — in one simple action cutting through the ignorance and prejudice that surrounds this condition.  Here, for the first time, was a royal who truly was in touch with ordinary people.

The contrast was never more stark when, in the first days after Diana’s death, the queen seemed not to understand what was happening among her subjects.

When she did emerge from behind the palace gates, and saw for herself what was going on right outside her windows, she responded by addressing the nation on TV.  Not just as their queen — but as a “grandmother.”

The use of that simple word, identifying herself as an ordinary person as much as a monarch, marked in my view a turning point in the public’s perception. You could almost feel their anger beginning to recede.

Legacy lives on in her sons
If Diana could have chosen her legacy, she could not have done better than her two boys. William and Harry are her ambassadors, championing the causes she supported.

They have a strong and affectionate bond with their father, who rose to the challenge of raising them after Diana’s death. Their generous acceptance of their stepmother, Camilla, has made it easier for the public to accept her too.

Like their mother, they continue to attract the unrelenting attention of the media, sometimes for what the tabloids love to portray as their occasional wild behavior, but what most parents will tell you is pretty normal in men of their age.  And “normal” is not a word long associated with royalty.

As for Diana’s epitaph, she effectively spoke her own in that remarkable TV interview three years before her death when she said: “I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts, but I don't see myself being queen of this country…”

She was right. Never queen of England. But, although to some she had become more flawed celebrity than royalty, she is still most people's queen of hearts.

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