# data[].attributes.headline
28. Diana shakes the hand of an AIDs patient, 1987

# data[].attributes.subject
28. Diana shakes the hand of an AIDs patient, 1987

# data[].attributes.body
In an era of prejudice and baseless fear towards a community suffering with a rampant epidemic, as well as vast misinformation that left those afflicted stigmatised and ostracised, Lady Diana shook hands with an AIDs patient in London, April 1987, without gloves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1987, Princess Diana of Wales visited AIDS patients at a hospital in London.

A famous photograph shows her shaking a patient's hand without wearing gloves.

The gesture challenged the once-common (but incorrect) belief that HIV or AIDS could be transmitted by touch.

The moment is emblematic of Diana's unwavering compassion for other people.

This week marks 21 years since the death of Princess Diana - a woman who's remembered as a style icon, loving mother, unconventional royal, and champion of charitable causes.

One of her finest humanitarian moments took place in a single instant on April 19, 1987.

That day, Diana arrived at London Middlesex Hospital to open the UK's first unit dedicated to treating people with HIV and AIDS, the BBC reported.

Then, she did something that history would remember forever: She shook the hand of an AIDS patient without wearing gloves.

Today it may not seem remarkable, since we know that HIV - the virus that can lead to AIDS - can't be transmitted by handshakes. But things were very different just a few decades ago.

AIDS was first identified back in the early 1980s. By 1983, scientists at the CDC had already concluded that the disease could not be transmitted through casual contact, but the public had become terrified. Reports from that era tell heartbreaking stories of AIDS patients - even children - who were shunned and stigmatized because of the disease. In 1985, the Los Angeles Times conducted a poll and found that 50% of respondents favored quarantining people with AIDS.

When she shook the hand of an unidentified AIDS patient, Diana used her public platform to challenge that irrational fear.

"If a royal was allowed to go in shake a patient's hands, somebody at the bus stop or the supermarket could do the same," a nurse who witnessed Diana's hospital visit once told the BBC. "That really educated people."

Diana didn't get the nickname "the people's princess" by accident: In her life she was a president or patron of more than 100 different charities working across a range of important issues. H er humanitarian work didn't begin or end with that handshake.

But in that moment, Diana showed the depth of her compassion for others. And she did it in a way that speeches and PSAs and TV interviews never could: She led by example.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This one photo shows exactly what made Princess Diana a royal icon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When Princess Diana shook the hand of an AIDS patient back in 1987, she sent the world a powerful message.

# data[].attributes.headline
29. Diana's compassion in a time of condemnation

# data[].attributes.subject
29. Diana's compassion in a time of condemnation

# data[].attributes.body
In 1991, Diana visited a Brazilian hostel for abandoned children, where she was photographed holding a child, many of the children at the hostel were HIV positive. When positioned in the context of 1991, such monumental acts of compassion illustrate her usage of her stardom and influence to try to affect change in the most positive of ways.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana understood the commodity and profitability of her star image and utilised it to help people.

# data[].attributes.headline
65. The 'Frustratingly Empty' Diana: The Musical

# data[].attributes.subject
65. The 'Frustratingly Empty' Diana: The Musical

# data[].attributes.body
A bordering on offensive musical released on Netflix in 2021, 'Diana: The Musical' is a tone-deaf handling of Diana's legacy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Diana: The Musical movie review (2021) | Roger Ebert

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Aside from some inspired, on-stage costume changes, Diana: The Musical feels rather staid and traditional.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
'Why Drag Race is still important for LGBT representation', BBC News, 2022

# data[].attributes.headline
66. Baga Chipz as The People's Princess in 'Drag Race UK vs. The World'

# data[].attributes.subject
66. Baga Chipz as The People's Princess in 'Drag Race UK vs. The World'

# data[].attributes.body
As an outspoken supporter of, and venerated icon of, the queer community, Lady Diana is a very popular inspiration for many drag artists, in 'Drag Race UK vs. The World', Baga Chipz entered the Main Stage paying tribute to Diana, her stardom still being extraordinarily celebrated today.

# data[].attributes.headline
61. 'Diana: In Her Own Words' The 2017 Documentary

# data[].attributes.subject
61. 'Diana: In Her Own Words' The 2017 Documentary

# data[].attributes.body
This is one of the finest examples of a documentary attempting to give Diana her own agency, a right she did not have for much of her life in the public eye.

# data[].attributes.headline
64. 2021's Academy Award Nominated Picture 'Spencer', Starring Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana

# data[].attributes.subject
64. 2021's Academy Award Nominated Picture 'Spencer', Starring Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana

# data[].attributes.body
This intimate and intense feature takes place over her final Christmas at Sandringham, the fact Hollywood is still producing films surrounding her life illustrates the monumental extent of her celebrity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This post contains spoilers for Spencer. Beware!

If you watched the Spencer trailer, featuring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, you likely caught a glimpse of a character played by Sally Hawkins ( The Shape of Water, Blue Jasmine). Your attention was likely so fixed on Stewart in full Diana garb (The wig! The pearls! The exquisite costumes!) and the other royal family members (The queen! Prince Charles! Prince Harry! Corgis!) that you-like me-did not pause to think, "What is a two-time Academy Award-nominated actor doing in what looks to be a minor role as a lady's maid?" If you had, you might have correctly surmised that the Hawkins character plays a larger role in Spencer than the trailer lets on.

In the film-a psychodrama centered around Diana's 1991 Sandringham holiday weekend-Diana is in a vulnerable state. Her marriage is irretrievably fractured. She understands that the royal family considers her a "problem." She is suffering from bulimia and spurts of paranoia, both seemingly enhanced by the pressures of Sandringham-its military-timed procession of feasts, costume changes, and strict royal protocols. More than anything, though, she is alone.

Alone save for Maggie, a lady-in-waiting initially assigned to dress Diana throughout the holiday weekend. Diana considers Maggie to be more of a friend, ally, or support system than a staff member, and leans on her accordingly. Toward the end of the film, when the princess is particularly down, it is only Maggie who is able to cheer up the royal-confiding, during a spontaneous excursion to the beach, that she is actually in love with Diana. The relationship is not consummated, but the confession gives Diana the lift she needs to rebound from Sandringham's darkness.

When I joined screenwriter Steven Knight for a Zoom, I asked him point blank: "Is Maggie based on a real-life person?"

He smiled and said, "I can't comment on that because the problem is, as soon as you get specific, it becomes the story." To research the film, Knight said, he spoke to Sandringham staff members directly and vowed to protect their identities. "What I want to do is just say that the strangest things are true, and that information came from people who knew.... I just think it's interesting and fun. It's rooted in things, so it has that authority."

Stewart, who also researched Diana thoroughly before filming, said in a separate interview alongside director Pablo Larraín that she was just as desperate to learn who he spoke with.

"I've only met Steven one time and it was at the London Film Festival. He was like, 'I spoke to people but I can't even disclose their names,' because they were discreetly opening themselves to him. I so wanted to drag him offstage and be like, 'Who?!' I actually never got that chance."

In writing the story line, Knight said, "When you have a really sympathetic character like the character that Sally's playing, you almost want to take it to the limit, I suppose. How far does this go? And setting aside what really happened as a source for this, it's also great to have someone who is expressing the intense empathy of the below-stairs people."

In real life, Diana felt uncomfortable upstairs at Sandringham and occasionally sought refuge downstairs, where she would chat with staff members in the kitchen and sometimes help herself to a snack, Stewart said.

"She would go downstairs and hack off parts of lamb and say, 'Oh the food's better down here. What they give us up there, I don't really like it,'" said Stewart. "She would just come down and start eating with her hands. Some people thought it was the oddest thing-others were like, 'How cool.' It rubbed some people the wrong way because it went against protocol, and other people were so in love with the notion. I do know for a fact that there were many Maggies-the people she needed to hold onto, people she needed to reach out to and grasp and bring in."

Speaking about the function of Hawkins's character, Larraín said, "She's there not only to express her feelings, but to remind her that she was loved. It's so important because Diana's someone who is so broken for so many reasons. All she needed is to feel love from others." Diana was, of course, married to the one person in the world who didn't seem to be in love with her: Prince Charles. "She was just, like, the most highly rejected sort of sad sack," added Stewart.

The scene where Maggie confesses to Diana is probably the most carefree sequence in Spencer. Filming it, though, was difficult, according to Larraín. "Acting that scene was really, really hard. And it requires someone with courage and an incredible amount of truth, like Sally Hawkins. When we were casting that part, all I was thinking was that we needed a real actress, an incredible person to pull off-not just the character-but basically all the humanity, the fragility of the truth, the weirdness. It was all there."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spencer's Ending: Kristen Stewart and Screenwriter Explain That Surprise Twist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We asked screenwriter Steven Knight whether Sally Hawkins's character is based on a real person, and also spoke to Stewart about Princess Diana finding love.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana sitting on the bed beside a patient at London's Mildmay Hospital, 1989.

# data[].attributes.headline
28. Diana visits The London Lighthouse, a centre for people affected by HIV and AIDs

# data[].attributes.subject
28. Diana visits The London Lighthouse, a centre for people affected by HIV and AIDs

# data[].attributes.body
Diana was one of the first public figures to kiss an AIDs patient. Though these acts should not seem so groundbreaking, this act of affection changed the way in which the epidemic was viewed by many, and cemented her reverence among the queer community forever.

# data[].attributes.headline
62. 'Diana' (2013), chronicles the final two years of Diana's life, to very little acclaim.

# data[].attributes.subject
62. 'Diana' (2013), chronicles the final two years of Diana's life, to very little acclaim.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana (2013) follows the divorced Princess through the final two years of her life, from the philanthropy, to the relationships, to the paparazzi.

# data[].attributes.headline
63. Stephen Frear's 2006 'The Queen' follows the events that transpired in the immediate aftermath of Diana's passing.

# data[].attributes.subject
63. Stephen Frear's 2006 'The Queen' follows the events that transpired in the immediate aftermath of Diana's passing.

# data[].attributes.body
If there is one narrative that exemplifies the importance of a person more than a biopic about their life, it is a film surrounding the impact and complexities of their death.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It was almost 10 years ago. Before 9/11, before Big Brother, before blogging and Popbitch and MySpace, there was the death of Princess Diana, which was the media-political event to end all media-political events - or so we thought. No one was more cowed and more disorientated by it all than the Queen, who found that her own rank had been decisively trumped by the nuclear fission of Diana's new global celebrity in death, and by the extravagant emotions of an angry public.

It is this extraordinary time that Stephen Frears' hugely enjoyable film revisits, aided by a cracking impersonation of the Queen by Helen Mirren who, though appreciably taller and younger than our head of state, achieves an eerie transformation with the aid of hairpiece, glasses, frumpier-than-thou couture and brilliant mimicry of the Queen's walk. It is a walk that Frears correctly senses is best seen from the rear, at the head of a bobbing train of corgis. The voice is less outrageously grand than the real thing, a restraint born perhaps of fear of going down the Spitting Image route. "Off" becomes "orf" only once. Under the clothes, there has evidently been some prosthetic augmentation of the royal middle, and indeed the royal behind. Michael Sheen revives his hilarious turn as Tony Blair in the bright springtime of his administration: dark of hair, unlined of face - Sheen is becoming the Jon Culshaw of legitimate acting; his Kenneth Williams on BBC4 was a treat, and his David Frost is a white-hot ticket at London's Donmar theatre.

The best moments of the film are probably the opening scenes, before the great crash, and also the final autumnal encounter between Blair and the Queen after the cataclysm has died down - when the Queen is not at bay, when she is extrovert, droll, forthright and very, very good at putting people not at their ease.

It's very funny when Blair, our twitchy new PM, is ushered into the palace for his first weekly meeting, and Mirren's Queen meets him with the unreadable smile of a chess grandmaster, facing a nervous tyro. She begins by reminding him that she has worked with 10 prime ministers, beginning with Winston Churchill, "sitting where you are now". As put-downs go, that's like pulling a lever and watching a chandelier fall on your opponent's head.

When the terrible news unfolds, Frears is good at showing New Labour's compulsive eagerness to bully and chivvy the Queen and its skill at shaping events for the administration's own ends: to promote its own identity as the caring moderniser. The film, however, neglects to note how both party and country had already had a dummy-run in converting grief into New Labour politics with the death of the much-loved John Smith - a spasm of public sadness which has become the most utterly forgotten event in modern British history.

While the public mood worsens, the Queen goes to Balmoral with Philip, the Queen Mother and the princes, ostensibly to keep the boys away from the media, but really to retreat, woundedly and angrily, from this mass demonstration of lèse majesté. It is here that a little of the heat goes out of the movie, because the Queen becomes opaque, mentally circling the wagons, and we can't hear everything that she is thinking. Peter Morgan's smart script sensibly does not contrive an agonised, tearful dark night of the soul for her. This is, after all, famously the woman who cried in public only for the decommissioning of the royal yacht Britannia. But Morgan does invent a brilliant anti-Disney encounter on the secluded Highland acres, between a deeply depressed Queen and a magnificent stag that has wandered over from a neighbouring estate. She had been crying, but we see only the back of her head. Crying for whom? Not for Diana, that's for sure. Later, the Queen is shaken into action by seeing the same stag's horribly decapitated carcass, shot by some corporate suit on a hospitality jaunt: an unsubtle, but ferociously unsentimental piece of symbolism.

It's such a shame that the Queen is at bay so much, and displayed so often in terms of brow-furrowed silence and worry. That is probably what she is actually like, and all Helen Mirren's wit and asperity is wishful thinking and dramatic licence. But there were times I felt, that, in art as in life, she was being upstaged by Diana's ghost. How much more revealing, and entertaining, to have had more unfettered dialogue, and the transgressive thrill of hearing her express an opinion, what Mirren's Queen calls "the sheer joy of being partial". I remember Prunella Scales' performance as HMQ in the TV version of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution in 1992, and feeling a frisson in seeing an actor presuming to play the living Queen with sympathy and intimacy. More subversive than any latex satire.

Now in 2006, this taboo feeling isn't there, but the film is a sharp reminder that the Queen has doggedly survived, because she has never been required to expend mental energy and political capital in shows of sincerity. She must have been relieved to discover that, unlike her annus horribilis five years previously, when she was forced to pay income tax, it was soon business as usual. No great changes or concessions were ever demanded of her. Now it is President Blair who is in retreat, and all the hopes and idealism of 1997 have crumbled. This is, after all, a period movie that leaves you with a feeling of sadness at how little has changed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Queen review - Helen Mirren's eerie transformation in hugely enjoyable film

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Stephen Frears' period movie leaves you with a feeling of sadness at how little has changed

# data[].attributes.headline
 57. Prince Harry follows in Diana's footsteps in fight against landmines

# data[].attributes.subject
 57. Prince Harry follows in Diana's footsteps in fight against landmines

# data[].attributes.body
Despite being banned, landmines are still in use. Diana's activism has been continued by her son, the way in which she used her impact and her image to raise awareness for world issues lives on in her children, in this context her youngest, Prince Harry, taking the torch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Photograph by Jane Fincher, in The New Yorker

# data[].attributes.body
Bowing her head, as the Head of State, to any person is prohibited. The popularity of Diana forced the Queen to do it anyway. Perhaps a genuine display of sorrow, perhaps a calculated play to regain the faith of the people, this was monumental.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Flowers laid in their millions in Stately homes across the nation, Buckingham Palace shown here.

# data[].attributes.headline
37. The People's Mourning for their Princes.

# data[].attributes.subject
37. The People's Mourning for their Princes.

# data[].attributes.body
Few stars in history have seen such an outpouring of grief in the wake of their passing as Lady Diana, her celebrity palpable in the world's heartbreak.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana's funeral, Elton John sings his "Candle in the Wind", taking on new meaning for the late Princess.

# data[].attributes.body
John performed at the funeral, dedicating his song originally written about Marilyn Monroe to Diana. The words of "Candle in the Wind" taking on bitterly applicable meaning when played for Diana. Changing the lyrics to "Goodbye English Rose".

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Donatella Versace, Anna Wintour, Catherine Walker were all in attendance at the funeral.

# data[].attributes.headline
47. The elite of many entertainment industries attended, including those from the world of fashion

# data[].attributes.subject
47. The elite of many entertainment industries attended, including those from the world of fashion

# data[].attributes.body
Celebrities from the spheres of music, sport, media, acting, and more, such as Elton John, George Michael, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were present. The impact of Diana's fashion was represented at her funeral by the fashion royalty who attended, exemplifying her image and influence. Present was Donatella Versace, Anna Wintour (pictured above), Karl Lagerfield and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Hilary Clinton walking through the mourners' flowers.

# data[].attributes.body
Along with Tony and Cherie Blair, all former living Prime Ministers, and representatives of most nations across the globe, US First Lady Hilary Clinton attended the funeral - the political world was also shocked by this death.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh walking through the flowers laid outside Buckingham Palace, finally appearing to mourning.

# data[].attributes.body
Elizabeth faced the biggest crisis of her reign in the aftermath of Diana's passing, while the nation mourned, she conspicuously did not. Headlines such as "Where is Our Queen", "Your People Are Suffering, Speak To Us Ma'am" in newspapers illustrate the outcry of the people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Coffin is carried into Westminster Abbey.

# data[].attributes.body
To this day, the current ratings system employed in the United Kingdom lists this as the most watched live event on record. In the UK alone, 31 million people tuned in. Worldwide, an estimated 2.5 billion people watched the funeral.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
An image now famous, the procession walk behind the coffin.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana's funeral procession to Westminster is led by her brother, Charles Spencer, her ex-husband, The Prince of Wales, her ex-father-in-law, The Duke of Edinburgh and her teenage sons, William and Harry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana's and Sandra Thijica, in Luanda, Angola.

# data[].attributes.headline
32. Diana with amputees at Neves Bendinha Orthopedic Workshop, Angola, January, 1997

# data[].attributes.subject
32. Diana with amputees at Neves Bendinha Orthopedic Workshop, Angola, January, 1997

# data[].attributes.body
Sitting on Diana's lap is 13-year-old Sandra Thijica, who lost her left leg to a land mine while working the land with her mother in 1994.

# data[].attributes.body
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, addressed a mourning nation on August 31, 1997. It is in this speech that the now famous articulation of Diana's standing in the United Kingdom is coined, "The People's Princess".

# data[].attributes.body
Without seeing her face, audiences immediately know who this film is about. The film profits off Diana's iconography.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Prince William at the launch of Homeward in Bournemouth, 2023.

# data[].attributes.headline
56. Prince William vows to end homelessness in the UK, carrying on Diana's passion for tackling this crisis

# data[].attributes.subject
56. Prince William vows to end homelessness in the UK, carrying on Diana's passion for tackling this crisis

# data[].attributes.body
Homeward, the name of William's initiative, is seen as a continuation of the work Diana did when she was alive to aid the homeless. Starting in 2023, this organisation will give each location chosen to flagship the initiative £500,000 for innovative housing schemes.

# data[].attributes.headline
59. Prince William and Harry honour Diana on what would have been her birthday, sending messages of praise to recipients of The Diana Award.

# data[].attributes.subject
59. Prince William and Harry honour Diana on what would have been her birthday, sending messages of praise to recipients of The Diana Award.

# data[].attributes.body
'The brothers send separate messages of support to the 180 winners of the Diana Award, which is given to young people internationally who have made charitable contributions to their communities', Vanity Fair describing this as 'honouring her legacy'.

# data[].attributes.body
Banks were closed, sports events postponed, many theatres cancelled Saturday matinees and cinemas did not open until 3.00 p.m. A spokeswoman for the abbey said the thousands of flowers placed around the church would remain until they fade.

# data[].attributes.headline
38. Diana's home, Kensington Palace, with thousands of bouquets of flowers laid in honour.

# data[].attributes.subject
38. Diana's home, Kensington Palace, with thousands of bouquets of flowers laid in honour.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the many stately homes across Britain bathed in flowers, notes such as "Queen of Our Hearts" labelled the flowers. Tributes to a person who's fame was unlike any other.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Hearse moving through the crowds of mourners.

# data[].attributes.body
Mourners of Diana turned up in their thousands to line the streets through which the hearse would proceed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Promotional Material for the sixth and final season of "The Crown".

# data[].attributes.body
The only poster released for the first part of the final season of "The Crown", without seeing her face, we immediately know who and when this is. Profiting off the iconography, and the tragedy, of Diana's life without even revealing the face of the actress. She is monolithic in our culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana, William and Harry, in the final months of her life.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana's death, as it has much of "The Crown", 'looms over season 6', the audience have always known where the tragedy of Diana goes, and after three seasons, as unethical as it is, it play out on November 16.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The "Whatever Love Means" engagement announcement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Emma Corrin portraying Lady Diana on her wedding day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The courtship and the beginnings of press obsession.

# data[].attributes.body
Chronicling the reign of Elizabeth II, it was inevitably this multi-award winning Netflix show would reach and exploit the devastating story of Diana in the Royal Family. When it did, to varying affect, producers were sure to include the defining moments of this era and the things that made Diana the star she became.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Princess of Wales doll, released in the run-up to the Royal Wedding.

# data[].attributes.body
The royal wedding was surrounded by media attention and an onslaught of merchandise goods was released. Tins, booklets, t-shirts, packs of cards, commemorative plates and more were distributed across the globe, furthering Diana's star image as a literal household name.

# data[].attributes.body
Every year, more and more people pay homage to Diana for fancy dress parties, as seen on TikTok and other social media platforms, donning tiaras, pearls, wigs and outfits. Her star burns as bright now as ever.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and John Travolta dancing at the White House, 1985.

# data[].attributes.body
'Before the revenge dress, there was this stunner'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Ron Howard at the premier of Apollo 13, 1995.

# data[].attributes.body
As a member of the Royal Family, Diana went to many premiers for Hollywood blockbusters.

# data[].attributes.body
Allies in the fight to help those less fortunate, upon Diana's death, Mother Theresa expressed her condolences. “She was very concerned for the poor. She was very anxious to do something for them, and it was beautiful. That is why she was close to me.”

# data[].attributes.body
Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Liza Minelli and many more of the celebrity elite considered Diana a dear friend.

# data[].attributes.body
Gossip that has become legend, the two close friends went to a gay bar in South London, Diana disguised as a man in a baseball cap and jacket to get in and stay anonymous.

# data[].attributes.body
Following the shocking news of Diana's passing, an outpouring of tributes from world leaders, celebrity friends and complete strangers who were so deeply hurt by her death exemplifies her celebrity and adoration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and Charles driving through the streets of Sydney, bustling with fans, Spring, 1983.

# data[].attributes.body
The Australia tour of 1983 lifted her to even greater heights of eminence. This popularity overshadowed that of the heir to the throne, causing friction for the newly-weds.

# data[].attributes.body
The press faced significant criticism for their treatment of Diana and the role they played in her death. Blair was interviewed on BBC about the issue the Sunday before the funeral, stating: 'This is a problem that requires more than the letter of the law. It requires a degree of acceptance of what is proper conduct and what is not towards people'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana in her wedding dress, designed by Elizabeth Emanuel, setting a new trend of bridal fashion.

# data[].attributes.body
On June 29, 1981, the most watched wedding of the 20th century took place. Lady Diana and Prince Charles married in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, in a televised ceremony followed by 750 million people around the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and Charles, in the Buckingham Palace gardens, making the announcement of their engagement, February, 1981.

# data[].attributes.body
The moment that Diana became known: after 6 months of courtship, the two relative strangers announced their engagement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and Charles walking out of London's St. Mary's Hospital with Prince William, 1982.

# data[].attributes.body
Two years after William's birth, Henry is born. According to Diana, the couple never have sex again. The world does not yet know this, they are in love with the perfect couple.

# data[].attributes.headline
20. Diana at Cannes Film Festival, 1987.

# data[].attributes.subject
20. Diana at Cannes Film Festival, 1987.

# data[].attributes.headline
15. Diana at the gala of the British Fashion Awards, 1989.

# data[].attributes.subject
15. Diana at the gala of the British Fashion Awards, 1989.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana was, and still is, an absolute fashion icon. A major part of her star image, her fashion encapsulates trends and heights of 1980s and 1990s fashion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana in the Mother's Race, at Wetherby, the school William attended, June, 1989.

# data[].attributes.body
Diana's informal, personal and fresh take on what a Princess could be is what made the country, and the world, fall in love with her. Put in the context of the privileged, out-of-touch and 'restrictive demeanour of the Royal Family', this was new kind of royal was one which the world could not get enough of.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana, William and Harry at Thorpe Park, 1990.

# data[].attributes.headline
7. Diana's motherhood and reported relaxed nature.

# data[].attributes.subject
7. Diana's motherhood and reported relaxed nature.

# data[].attributes.body
Taking her children to fast-food restaurants and amusement parks, media coverage of Diana presents a woman who said she was trying to give her children a 'normal' childhood. This is obviously impossible, their wealth and privilege making such an existence unfathomable. However this made her even more beloved - seeing a mother put her children's wellbeing first and do all she can to make them happy and different from royals past.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana in Kensington Palace with Martin Bashir, discussing her position in, and apprehensions of, the royal family.

# data[].attributes.body
A result of manipulation and blackmail, this exploitative and amoral interview of November 1995, dubbed by obsessive press outlets as 'the scoop of the century' saw Diana recount her life in the royal family in detail. Mere months after it aired, Diana and Charles signed the divorce papers. The implications of this interview on her personal life, and on her celebrity image, cannot be understated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Andrew Morton's 'Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words' front cover, 1992.

# data[].attributes.body
Feeling as though the Family was not protecting their future Queen against the brutality of the press, and the adultery of her spouse, Diana took actions into her own hands.

Unheard of for a Royal, Diana reclaimed her narrative through secret tapes to Morton, who published them to great success. Her first step to fighting back against the Family, this sent paparazzi, and the world into an even greater frenzy of obsession with her story, and pushed her further away from the Establishment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana, isolated. Another famous image of Diana, on Dodi Fayed's yacht weeks before her death, 1997.

# data[].attributes.body
In the weeks leading up to Diana's death, media interest was reaching even more dangerous heights, while she was already the most photographed woman on the planet, the paparazzi were going to greater lengths to secure any picture of her.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and Dodi, on the Fayed yatch, 1997

# data[].attributes.body
Hounded by the press, Diana vacationed with her partner, Dodi Fayed on his father's yacht. Seeing her children for the last time on this holiday, these were the final, and some of the most famous, weeks of Diana's and Dodi's lives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
A few months after her divorce from Charles, Diana attends the 1996 Met Gala, the main event of the fashion calender.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Designed by Stambolian, the dress was deemed too 'provocative' by the royals, but by 1994 that, like their stardom in the face of Diana's, was irrelevant.

# data[].attributes.body
This climax of Diana's celebrity image in June 1994. The most famous image of Diana, this photo captures the monumental zenith of Diana's stardom.

# data[].attributes.body
A unique aspect to Diana's celebrity image is the unwavering love and loyalty of her fans. At a time when people would believe a man before a woman, and would certainly support their heir over a once-stranger to the public, Diana almost unanimously had the support of the public throughout her entire life. Whether it was against the infidelity of Charles, the oppressive nature of the Royals or the viciously aggressive pursuits of the paparazzi, Diana has always received the full backing of the people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
December, 1992, Buckingham Palace announced their separation.

# data[].attributes.headline
12. The Prince and Princess of Wales split.

# data[].attributes.subject
12. The Prince and Princess of Wales split.

# data[].attributes.body
Rumour of their marriage collapsing was proffitable gossip magazines and journalists, by 1992, separation was finally and formally announced. By this point Camila Parker-Bowles was well-known and her involvement with Charles was too. The people supported Diana. Debatably her star image grew in this sympathy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana in the Spencer tiara, Germany 1987.

# data[].attributes.headline
16. Another major part of her physical star image, her hairstyles and jewellery

# data[].attributes.subject
16. Another major part of her physical star image, her hairstyles and jewellery

# data[].attributes.body
Along with outfits, the iconic hairstyles and jewellery, the pearls, tiaras, earrings, were another cornerstone of her celebrity image and her eminence in the fashion world.

# data[].attributes.headline
18. Even dressed casually, the Princess' fashion was adored.

# data[].attributes.subject
18. Even dressed casually, the Princess' fashion was adored.

# data[].attributes.body
As with much of Diana's activism, her trailblazing walk to raise awareness for banning landmines was a 'turning point' in the global effort to bring an end to landmines. Landmines were banned three months after her passing, her walk seen as a major reason for this eradication.

# data[].attributes.body
What started out with ostensibly innocent interest in the new Princess, the paparazzi's obsession with Diana was unlike that of any other celebrity at that time and was disturbingly pervasive, heightening Diana's struggles.

# data[].attributes.headline
27. Raising awareness for mental health, eating disorders

# data[].attributes.subject
27. Raising awareness for mental health, eating disorders

# data[].attributes.body
While this was not intended to be a form of activism, rather opening up about her own struggles, Diana's description of her mental health, as well as her eating disorder, helped break down stigma, instead discuss the issues faced. There may not be a statistic for all those she saved by opening the door in the public eye to being truthful about ones struggles, it is palpable the change this made to Britain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Mohamed al-Fayed in Harrods, London, with the statue.

# data[].attributes.body
Dodi's father, Mohamed al-Fayed, erected a statue in Harrods, the store he owned, paying tribute to his son and his son's partner.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Photoed above is the statue of Diana in Kensington Palace, by artist Ian Rank-Broadley.

# data[].attributes.body
The Kensington Palace statue representing her charitable nature and passion for children, commissioned by William and Harry, commemorating their mother.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Charles, William and Harry walking through the flowers dedicated to Diana in her passing, 1997.

# data[].attributes.body
A grieving William, 15, and Harry, 12 with their father.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lady Diana Spencer. Anwar Hussein / wireimage.

# data[].attributes.body
Paris, France, August 31, 1997.

Diana, aged 36, and Dodi Fayed, chased by the paparazzi, at the height of their mania, were in a 'headlong flight' to evade them, at which point the car crashed in a Parisian tunnel.

The news of the untimely and shocking passing rocked the world. What came next speaks to the adoration of the world for their Princess.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana, William and Harry, boarding the royal yacht Brittannia, October 1991.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Prince and Princess of Wales wave from their carriage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana and Charles waving goodbye to Melbourne, April, 1983.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana sitting outside the Taj Mahal, alone, 1992.

# data[].attributes.body
The photo that 'captured a disintegrating marriage. A Princess without her Prince'. Charles abandoned Diana - the world knows something is wrong.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The flame of liberty marking Place Diana.

# data[].attributes.body
Above the tunnel in which she lost her life, a flame of liberty has been placed on the Parisian street to commemorate the life of Diana. Many visit every year to pay their respects. The Place Diana, translated to Diana Square is situated by the Seine.

# data[].attributes.body
'Empowering Young People to Make Positive Change', The Diana Award is a fitting tribute to Diana, and ensures the charity and philanthropy which she represented will live on in her legacy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Diana at a school, championing children's education.

# data[].attributes.body
Using her image to raise awareness for more charitable causes, it is fair to say Diana after her divorce experienced greater celebration by people, and became a greater target of the press.

A reason her death was so painful for many was because of the potential of what more she would have done to help people.

# data[].attributes.headline
25. 'Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded'

# data[].attributes.subject
25. 'Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded'

# data[].attributes.body
Iconic quotes such as this and her desire to be 'queen of our hearts' made perfect soundbites for the BBC, who have since issued an apology for the way they deceived Diana into acquiring the interview.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Princess Diana amazing words about Camilla

# data[].attributes.body
Homeless and Women's shelters were also commonly frequented by Diana throughout her time both in and out of the Royal Family. She would take her children, too.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, before the split from the Family.

# data[].attributes.body
Despite rhetoric that the Royals, and the press, had changed their cruel treatment of outspoken and compassionate women within the Family, the treatment of Harry's wife, Meghan Markle, proves, after everything that happened to Diana, nothing has changed. All the while constantly comparing her to Diana.