The Royal Family's response The Queen's first public address came five days after Diana's death. “I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being,” she said in a speech broadcast to the nation.
“We have all been trying in our different ways to cope,” she said. “It is not easy to express a sense of loss, since the initial shock is often succeeded by a mixture of other feelings: disbelief, incomprehension, anger — and concern for those who remain.”
Diana died in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. The monarch paid tribute to the princess with a speech, saying she “was an exceptional and gifted human being”.
The Queen did not cry at Princess Diana's funeral, the late British monarch has only cried in public on a number of occasions.
However, many Britons also felt anger towards the Royal Family at this time, for two reasons. The Queen was first criticised for not immediately travelling to London following the car crash in Paris, which also killed her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul.
Camilla may have been at Diana's wedding but she was not welcome at her funeral, which was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world. Still, to many her absence echoed around the ancient hall. The Queen made it clear to Charles that he could not take his paramour to the service.
The queen's public words about Diana were sincere, as a private letter—made public in 2017—that she wrote after the funeral to her aide Lady Henriette Abel Smith seems to confirm. "It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country," the queen wrote.
"[Charles, Earl Spencer], Diana's brother … has also said that he felt that he was tricked into doing it and regrets it. He said it was like walking through a tunnel of grief,” the author added.
On July 29, 1981, Charles and Diana got married. Camilla attended their wedding.
For Princess Diana's September 1997 funeral, the card atop her coffin read, simply, "Mummy," in the 12-year-old scrawl of Prince Harry. Heir and spare dynamic, be gone.
Though Diana was still new to her royal role and just 21 years old at the time, the queen was right to trust her. It was her first solo overseas trip as a representative of the royal family, and she won praise for her “dignified manner at the highly charged and at times mawkish funeral service,” per Morton.
Did the Queen like Princess Diana? After marrying Charles, Diana's relationship with the Queen was said to be "second to none" and she even – supposedly – called the Queen "mama" at times. "That was Diana's purpose in life," said former royal protection officer Ken Wharfe.
It is known that before the Queen, who is the symbol of national unity, everyone bowed. "But that day, it is Elizabeth who bowed her head as a sign of respect for the passage of Diana's coffin, the woman who wore more than anyone else had defied the conventions of the palace."
"My God, what's happened," Diana then asked him, in what proved to be her final words. "I massaged her heart and a few seconds later she started breathing again. It was a relief of course because, as a first responder, you want to save lives - and that's what I thought I had done.
Prince Harry 'cried once' over Diana's death: Duke reveals he broke down in tears at mother's burial and felt 'guilt' meeting mourners outside Kensington Palace during ITV interview with Tom Bradby to be aired at 9pm. Prince Harry has revealed he only cried once over the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Queen Elizabeth Knew Her Time Was Running Short, 'Had No Regrets' Before Her Death, Book Says.
I will too! Answer: The big reason Prince Charles and Camilla Shand, as she was then known, didn't get married in the early 1970s: He never asked her. And there are probably a number of reasons for that. In his early 20s, like many other young men, Charles simply wasn't ready for marriage.
Instead of a traditional church wedding, then-Prince Charles and Camilla opted for a civil ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall, followed by a blessing at St George's Chapel. Since they did not actually tie the knot in a church, it was likely not considered custom for the current Queen Consort to wear a tiara.
Yet the late Princess is said to have never fully reconciled with Camilla, who was criticised by the press and Diana's supporters – especially when the beloved royal was tragically killed in the famous 1997 car accident.
She's spotted crying at Heathrow airport upon his departure—not because she is sad, but because before he left, he had taken a phone call with Camilla Parker Bowles. “It just broke my heart,” she later recalled, according to Diana: In Her Own Words.
“He then let out a cry of pain was that so spontaneous and came from the heart,” Andersen further shared, also citing one witness describing it as a 'howl of anguish'. “Palace staff rushed over to Charles' room and found him collapsed in an armchair, weeping uncontrollably,” the royal author also shared.
The Earl remembered a special day
Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer shared a special video which saw him visiting the site of his late sister's grave on Friday, on what would have been her 61st birthday.
Who walked behind Diana's coffin? The funeral procession included William and Harry,Prince Charles andPrince Philip, as well as hundreds of representatives of the charities Diana had been involved with.
Diana was buried later that day in a private ceremony in Althorp Park, the Spencer family estate. She was wearing a black woolen long-sleeved cocktail dress by Catherine Walker that she had ordered only weeks before she died, and holding a set of rosary beads that were a gift from Mother Theresa.
Queen Elizabeth's colorful younger sister Princess Margaret was known for being a royal troublemaker and was, like Diana, divorced from an ex-husband she'd had a tumultuous and unfaithful relationship with. Princess Margaret attended Princess Diana's funeral with her son Lord Linley and his wife Lady Serena Linley.