Diana: The People's Princess

[Music] you [Music] she was pretty she was vulnerable she was shy she was warm we haven't seen a royal like this ever the compassion from mrs. Diana was extraordinary I've never met anybody that cared like she did she was such an inspiration for so many moms she lit up a room you knew you were in the presence of someone very very special she was confident insecure and lonely all at the same time and she looked like a movie star [Music] so people who weren't around in 1997 they would have no conception now of just how big a story she was there was nothing or no one bigger the phenomenon of this woman was incredible every single day every single newspaper had stories about Diana pictures of Diana especially during that summer she was divorced from Prince Charles she was a woman in her own right and you know she was fascinating not just because of being Diana but because what she was doing with her life everywhere she went every town every city every country people turned out in their thousands to see her I think she was so popular in the beginning because probably every woman on the planet wanted to be that young woman sitting in the gold coach with the big silk dress going to get married to her principal people wanted the fairy story and Diana represented the fairy story eight weeks before she died Diana told me let's just have a girly chat I remember her saying that so clearly and that sort of slightly little girl voice of hers she said that Charles occasionally would drop into Kensington Palace they'd been to I think it was Prince Harry sports day together she seemed very sad because I think he was the love of her life and she said we could have been so great together she felt that a lot of the things he believed in she believed in now she was very very loyal about Prince Charles and she said we loved each other and she said it really hurts me that no one thinks that he loved me and if you saw the letters people would believe me the princess never wanted a divorce she wanted a separation she wanted to keep her family unit together she said for the boys sake let's bring up the boys Charles together let's have equal influence on them she flirted with men she had men friends I don't believe for a moment she was going to get married you know all this speculation of living abroad and getting married was purely speculation and it wasn't actually going to happen because William and Harry were more important to Diana than any future relationship that she had I met Dodi I suppose in the late 70s he was charming he was attractive he had he was very cool because he had of an American accent he went out with some very unsuitable women he liked American you know like the Californian type girls who were kind of wild he could throw on this charm and his when he put his charm on it was like a flame thrower it just annihilated everything in front of it and he treated Diana like a princess he was Eurotrash and that's how the world family saw him and the fact that Diana was consorting with him they really didn't like it she was going on holidays she was going on the family yacht and the royal family really did not like this and I suspect that was part of the joy of the whole relationship for Diana the princess only knew Dodi al-fayed for one month as far as I know there was no engagement ring as far as I know the princess was not about to marry or become engaged to dirty Alfred it's all I know I spoke to her the day before she died she would have told me that there were some fantastic pictures that came at me and she was looking incredible English had I never said the one-piece bathing suit she wore and she looked like she was having fun yeah this is picture of her getting onto the yacht with him and she had a little treat on bag remember holding it and and her slacks on and and and she was going to have some fun and it was the first time in a long time where she actually did look happy the end of August of 1997 Robin and I and our then 12-year old son were on vacation in Paris that particular evening we were walking back to our flat and we saw a huge gang of motorcyclists and paparazzi outside the front of the hotel bo I found out from one of the paparazzi that actually used because Princess Diana and Dodi al-fayed were actually in the hotel and that was the first I knew about it and was the first member of the embassy to know about it during that night when Diana and Dodi were at the Ritz Dodi was on the telephone to his father quite a lot of the time and his father I understand begged him if the hotel is surrounded by photographers just stay where you are don't go anywhere don't go back to the apartment but I think Dodi loved the game the chase and he desperately wanted to get out of there and I never quite know why but I think he felt why should he be imprisoned and so he insisted on rapport drove and drove back to the apartment the first night that we arrived we found ourselves in the back seat of a taxi cab to take us back to our hotel at about 12:15 12:20 in the morning somehow we ended up in the Alma tunnel our side hadn't been closed off yet we were present at the immediate aftermath of the car crash at that time we saw no paramedics certainly there was no ambulance there before we got to the point where we were right next to the pillars we were going so slowly and I noticed several four five six seven different people with cameras there's red lights there's blue lights there's white lights from these photographers which were the paparazzi and if you the best way to explain this the splash of light it was blinding blinding lights and you hear the clicks although it sounds like a very frenetic busy scene of these paparazzi taking all of these photos and running around the car and looking in the interior and the exterior and it was very coordinated like like a dance I see a woman's face her head was turned she had blonde hair but what I saw a bit were like bangs over over her nose and I said oh my god is a woman in the car and it looks like she's got to be dead what are they doing why aren't they why are they help why they taking pictures until the point that we were parallel to the car I couldn't have imagined that there was anybody in the car let alone alive in the car there was no blood she was just somebody that was not moving she was still almost like gives if her head were tilted looking out the window by the time we did get back to the hotel and by the time we got into bed ready to go to sleep it was about 1:15 in the morning Robyn said Jack I'm really having a problem falling asleep I can't get the image of this woman out of my mind I was in the middle of a Far East trip by Robin cook whose foreign secretary at the time and we were in the Philippines in Manila that particular night there were a few people like me who've been awoken from their slumbers and told to come to work right away and there was a sense I think that this was a really serious story I had a phone call from CNN in Atlanta at half past eleven on Saturday night and there's deep draw said can you tell me about the crash in Paris what crash crash McDonough and while he was talking I switched on TV like good god what's happened here I just heard on the radio that she had suffered a broken arm listen as I mentioned to one of my sources who said no I'm terribly sorry to inform you that the princess has died I called my news desk we agreed that there was time to put out a couple of news flashes that bred Diana Princess of Wales has died the Press Association named this morning and that went out at 4:43 am Diana Princess of Wales has died this is according to British sources and that is what the Press Association has been told within half an hour I was actually in the office I'd found Windsor Castle holyroodhouse sanitarium house for them to get their flags down to half-mast because they're always flying flags my partner had been out by the morning newspaper and when he came back he he little dazed really and very shocked and then he said ah I can't believe I can't believe the news I've just heard Princess Diana's died she's dead as a journalist I have covered lots of things in my time but I don't think there's been a single event that has had such a profound effect on me on Britain and also on the rest of the world I think it was like it was so shocking that you couldn't believe that this fairy tale princess who had finally looked like she had found happiness her life was snuffed out it took me a long time to actually believe it and we put the TV on and and as the news unfurled of course we heard that of what had happened and these tragic circumstances it was heart-wrenching it was a nightmare he fought like how it wasn't a dream and what struck me most was if thought like someone that I have known and loved someone that felt like a sister that week I had written a column about Diana and I was heavily critical of her because the royal family are not supposed to meddle in politics and I and I had been doing exactly that and when the accident happened I rang my paper and said pull that column out and they said yes and of course the paper was going crazy through the night things were happening my column got left in people thought I had written that knowing that she had died of course and my paper got two and a half thousand calls in the space of a couple of hours I had our death threats I'd had so many death threats I had people threatening to stab me to hurt me to disfigure me that's how severely this affected people their grief was so raw so I'm seeing it we know they they didn't stop to think about how the column when might had been written but they just saw someone being critical of her and and they wanted to kill me literally kill me on the Sunday we went to the hospital that pta son petia and the body was in a coffin wearing a very smart black cocktail dress there were never a mark on her face she was beautifully made up and she looked as though she was asleep verse vips came to pay their respects to the body including president and Madame sheer Aksum President of France it was a very quite a confusing time but I had my assistant our attache he was there trying to control people and stop he would keep on going in and I'd wanted to pay their last respects to her we're now about to put the coffin into the house we were just in the room on our own and the body was strapped into the coffin lid was put on and the RAF sergeant as I recall said to me which flag should we put on the coffin sir and I said what flag have you got and said we have a union jackal they're all standard I said well my head says Union Jack my heart says they're all standard and it's one of the royal family who is dead the royal standard does not go on the coffin and I said well put on the royal standard I will take responsibility an official and asked me what I thought I was doing and placing the royal standard on the coffin and I explained why and I was merely told technically I was wrong then when you saw the reaction of the public and official communication and arrived the Ambassador informing him to thank me for the unconventional decision I had taken full stop by teatime Prince Charles and diner sisters had both gone to Paris recovered the coffin and brought it back to England and the plane landed RAF Northolt I remember this very very well pictures of this plane coming into land and the official party waiting to greet Prince Charles on his return to the UK and Tony Blair who'd been up at trimmed in his constituency during the day was there and it was a windswept sight as I remember you know the Royal Standard which had been draped on the coffin blew about in the wind a bit and I think that moment was God makes me shiver to think about it now she was the people's princess and that's how she will stay how she will remain in our hearts and in our memories forever included in that phrase was a kind of rebuke of the official royal family it was saying we may not have the title that you stripped from Diana because she was denied her title as her royal highness but you will be the kind of princess that counts more it's actually better to be a people's princess than just having the old-fashioned flummery of the title you actually are popular with the people I suppose an outpouring was expected that it was so big amazed everybody and I remember the first bunch of flowers was laid at the center gates at Buckingham Palace and about five to five in the morning it was the grief itched onto people's faces that I couldn't get my head around they didn't know this woman they had never spoken to this woman they had never been within 20 yards of her and yet their grief was real the sight of these crowds go on the streets I found it compelling and people mock it now thinking some kind of madness overcame us there was a collective psychotic episode or the country went hysterical in those few days I have to tell you at the time it didn't feel like that it felt like something much more admirable actually it was a very gentle almost tender atmosphere in the crowds are counting to Gardens and elsewhere after Diana died I think the whole country was looking for a lead from the Queen and the Queen was in Balmoral we fully expected her to come back to London the royal family completely misjudged the mood of the nation but the Queen did what she'd always done when there is a tragedy or a death or a bereavement the royal family close ranks that's what they've done for a thousand years but in 1997 with someone like Diana it wasn't gonna work an and it was completely misjudged and the public were distraught they were furious very early on I stuck my neck out by writing a piece the headline of each took was something like the chilling silence of the Windsors you know I was no fan of the royal family or of monarchy and this was a line I took expecting to be quite unpopular what was very surprising was within a day or two of that piece of hearing this became the mainstream view the very monarchist newspapers started echoing this same sentiment the Daily Express said show us who you care where is our Queen where is her flag where I think the Queen probably in the past thought that she understood her subjects on this she didn't she just didn't get what was happening and she didn't know what was expected of her and and thank God she came back whenever you see gates of Kensington Palace they were just surrounded already by a sea of flowers it was growing steadily and there seemed to be a surge in the crowd and I thought what's happening now so I spoke to a lady close by and she said apparently the princes are due to arrive with their father and so I too went ahead to loud myself to be sort of pushed forward with the crowd and I think in the end that were stood by the driveway into Kensington Palace about the second row from the front or something like that I was struck by how brave they were I just thought these young men who just lost their mother they were in control they were smiling as Prince William approached I put my hands out and he sort of touched if it was barely a shake it was not justice with him like that but but I just said Oh God bless you god bless you and and he said thank you so much and the Queen arrived at the gates of Buckingham Palace and inspected the flowers she was confused why were people crying they didn't know Diana why is this outpouring why are people bringing flowers this didn't happen when her father died you could see the crowds when she arrived I wouldn't say that were hostile but they weren't friendly and and you could see as she walked around and and as she looked concerned the crowds kind of calmed down and and she was saved and and I really think it was that important I think she was saved I think if she hadn't come then the country might never have got over it they needed her she went back inside the palace and said I just don't understand this but I realize I must do something so what she did was unprecedented never before had a monic gone on live television in the United Kingdom and given a broadcast what I say to you now is your queen and as a grandmother I say from my heart first I want to pay tribute to Diana myself she was an exceptional and gifted human being in good times and bad she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness I admired and respected her for her energy and commitment to others and especially for her devotion to her two boys you [Music] early of the morning of the funeral I put my hand on the coffin and the raw standard and said is it's time for me to say goodbye to you now you could tell from saw how 5:00 in the morning he was gonna be a glorious day there wasn't a cloud the soul just came into the apartment and they took that enormous weight and carried her out of apartments 18:9 the atmosphere was quiet very very quiet it was the first time we actually felt the way to the coffin we lifted it up and we thought well this is this is quite happiness's they pulled her away from the front door and ran the corner and I just stood there and bowed [Music] we loaded onto the gun carriage put our bear skins on I then we started marching our first bit as we're going up the driveway of Ken's Dhin we could see the mass of people in front of us and thought wow I remember a microphones picked up a terrible whale of a member of the public who had that emotional response to sing I can remember that moment as as a pinnacle moment for me what you saw that morning that day of the funeral as you walked along the faces of the crowds look different from the ones you were used to for Royal occasions they weren't white and middle-aged sort of people who were collect souvenir details instead you saw faces that were black they were Asian they were young you would see gay couples visibly gay people together overwhelmingly this looked like a kind of new breed that maybe had been building for years but it suddenly sort of emerged it came out actually for the funeral of Diana and you looked at those faces and you thought this is different a million people came to the funeral that day a million people and what was incredible about that they were silent all you could hear was the the clip-clopping of the horses hooves on the tarmac where to concentrate on the person in front of you and a person in front you had to concentrate on the pace the horses you have to keep your head up you have to look proud your arms down beside you can't be fidgeting but that was very hard to do because each stage of that's four and a half mile March it was it was cheering there's people clapping there's people crying there was so many different emotions that you were and you were going through that all of them as we're going past Buckingham Palace we were told it in the Queen will be there so we did I eyes right when the coffin passed the gates of Buckingham Palace the Queen bowed her head to this really she was still a girl who'd been so tragically killed so all their differences were forgotten in that one bow of the Queen's head as we went carried on up the Marlin we knew just by the gates of st. James's that Prince Harry and Prince William and Prince Charles or join us and all Spencer and Prince Phillip [Music] Harry didn't want to walk behind the coffin he said he couldn't do it he was only a young boy then William said you stand beside me mummy would want that and so the boys did what everyone expected as we went through Horse Guards we picked up then all the charities who were who gone behind the boys and Prince Charles so we had to congregate at the start of the session and all charities are already there all lined up they stuck us right at the front right behind the princes perfect view of the coffin if there's one thing I learned about commentary it's trying to know what to say but also when to say nothing and that moment was when the camera got a close-up shot of the flowers from the boys and the word mummy and it was from Harry and you know you saw that note and you saw his little face at the back of the car and it was just like a cry now just thinking about it it was a very hard thing for them to have to do we weren't that far away from from the people in the crowd and you could see the emotions and their face outpouring of grief no tears in people's eyes you know you could see it in their eyes but I definitely remember being sad and an emotional just for you know just being in and you know that coffee new front as we were coming around to Westminster just as we pulled up in front of the Abbey we stopped next minutes big band chained them o'clock doing something exactly at a time as a massive achievement for all of us the coffin was on our shoulder and arm and because I had the widest part I had died on his shoulders I couldn't get a grip on to my partner's shoulder so I had to try and grab the middle of his back [Music] we had an obstacle straightaway we had the stairs that we'd never rehearsed going into the RV we had to cut try and keep the coffin level as possible as we sat in Westminster Abbey I was so proud to be sitting in a seat which I thought I shouldn't be sitting in and sat with prime ministers and famous people with my wife and my children I'm thinking they put us in the wrong place I'm sat opposite the Queen I could see Pavarotti he was crying you can see by just emotions how much he lost his he lost his best friend you can see just by him illustrating the emotions that he showed how much it meant to him and to the rest of the world that's how much of an iconic figure she was old Spencer took center stage and gave his eulogy he talked about Diana's blood family and how they would protect the boys and as he was saying that outside you could hear the crowd cheering him I could hear that wave of applause coming from outside through the abbey rippling through like a wave he spoke beautifully and very movingly but it was disparaging of the royal family and people just couldn't you know they were just stunned and then they loved him for it [Music] we had to March them back down Westminster Abbey down the steps again which we never rehearse to go up or down the steps and then we we put it into the the hearse then [Music] Princess Diana will be buried on a small island surrounded by lovely countryside and an ornamental Lake crossed only by a pontoon bridge people were just throwing flowers at the call and there was this guy trying to drive this car and his windscreen was being obscured just by flowers people straining on the roof they were on the bonnet on the back of the car it was just it was just very very moving the cortege which is on its way to Princess Diana's final resting place when the princess arrived at all through the car was covered with flowers and she arrived at aura as a royal princess this is the last time we will see Princess Diana's us the gates closed and she was gone you [Music] she was probably the most important person of the 20th century where charities are concerned so if you had Diana on your side or she she was a patron or she was promoting your cause a you knew that you would raise more money than you would normally raise but also that you could raise the issue much more easily because of her publicity that she gave you from just being around the focus of attention on Diana in about the first four or five years was of what she was wearing which was a great pity because she was doing tremendous work and this whole turnaround came when she went to the very first age-related ward at then Middlesex Hospital in the center of London and the first thing she did was stick out her right hand and shake hands with an aged patient and destroyed in a gesture that do not touch taboo [Music] Diana would have been perfectly aware of the impact she was having by touching a person with HIV and it was a phenomenal thing to do with such a high-profile public figure Wayne got his wish with a handshake having been affected by HIV myself I felt a huge sense of relief that actually someone was out there fighting the corner for people living with the virus Diana was totally fascinated with medicine she wanted to see a heart operation and there was Diana with the hat on and the mask on with hugely maskarad aligned eyes as you know I'm a great lover of children and the fact that a little person can have a second opportunity in my country I'm very proud to be involved I think Diana just wanted to help so badly back in 1997 I received a call saying that the British Red Cross were going to bring Diana to Angola and that they would like to visit one of the minefields that we were clearing them the first thing was really to brief her which we did in Kensington Palace about the seriousness of this issue we have about 24,000 people dying or losing limbs with mines exploding every year and that's one death or entry every 20 minutes to begin with she was very nervous and quite reticent and I think that she realized we were going to take her into a minefield an area that was still contaminated like all of us and difficult situations you can see fear in her eyes behind the smiles she didn't have to do it at all but she did and that was real courage there is a great image towards the end of her visit where I presented her with a mine that we cleared and removed the explosives as I handed it over to her and made a bit of a joke hopefully in Charles his bed when you get home and she threw her head back in and was really laughing I think it's one of the best images of Diana that's out that shows her sort of happy relaxed enjoying a joke having just come out of the minefield and I think that was probably a little bit of relief at that stage that she'd been in seen that seen the work and come out I am a humanitarian figure and always have been and always will be [Music] Princess Diana was also very much involved in the Royal Marsden cancer charity which is a very important part of the hospital because the charity helps fund our research work and she was incredibly helpful on a number of occasions that relate to donations and fundraising events she had a tremendous gift for really engaging staff and patients in a really positive way that that was hugely appreciated my daughter Holly was being treated at the time for leukemia and we was called and asked if we could go to Norfolk Park Hospital as they had a special guest been told it was Princess Diana I couldn't believe it losing Paul ng within the short period of time to cancers made the newspapers we then got a call to say that the princess had felt the anguish that my mum was going through and she wanted to do something when you lose your two youngest children you don't have a coat you just kind of get through it and the mother of Eden Turner he was born with several malformations and nearly died the first six months of his life he was in and out of Great Ormond Street on intensive care it was a really good day it was a day that made all the bad things that we'd gone through worth it in the end she was very interested in Asian she was very interested in how he progressed obviously the last time she'd seen him he was on ITU and very very sick and the love that she has for the children who's dying who just long-term chronically ill was just so touching and she was such an inspiration for so many mums huh suggesting that we started the charity was her way of saying to my mom this is an avenue where you can relieve some of that anguish and my mum was always at ease with Princess Diana there was no protocol there was no oh you know it was just held her hand and they basically at the end the day went off and had a a chat I never took any pictures of Holly when she was having her treatment with no hair I wanted to wipe it out and then Holly's picture was taken with Princess Diana and that picture is everywhere she must have tickled Holly as she picked her up because Holly's giggled and it is just such a natural picture and it's a picture that is embedded in my mind and I think a lot of other people's mind her work and her approach to things definitely lives on in the sun's her ability to want to help a cause to understand a cause to provide publicity for a cause to use the power the status she had William and Harry they are now deploying it very effectively Diana came from her heart she touched the lives of everybody she met she had a persona of graciousness love compassion beyond measure the credibility that we had was only because of Princess Diana we've raised nearly course of a billion that would never have existed if she hadn't said on a certain night you start charity and I will help you and there are hundreds certainly thousands of children that are alive today because that lady said you should start charity one touch from Diana one smile one kind word they never forgot it you know people would say she made my life it's unthinkable but that's what people say she made my life [Music] the most famous photographed person in the world was put next to one of the world's most serious problems there are 128 journalists from about 60 different countries there at the time this went around the world her connection with the minds and the minds became the key objective that here the mine bans treaty was agreed we work with a whole generation of young people who only know her as a historic figure yes I commit her to continue this legacy when we get young people together and help them understand the need to get involved in community the need to tackle issues that need to be active citizens and then we tell them about Princess Diana you always capture that moment when the girl Wow [Music] she did say to people that she was not a Republican she did not want the monarchy abolished she thought of it as her son's future and in a strange perverse way she did secure their future because they learnt a lesson from that week which was never again are we going to be so egregiously on the wrong side of public opinion [Music] Dinah's legacy is her boys and what she instilled in them at a very young age which was to get down there speak your mind and care for the uncared-for the irony is that through her boys she probably has been the savior of the monarchy her legacy is undoubtedly William and Harry and what is really really touching is the fact that Kate wears that ring that symbol of love given to Diana will one day be sat on the throne of England so we'll have come full circle and Diana's mission will be complete [Music] you

Channel: Sky News

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Keywords: Sky News, SkyNews, news, current affairs, Diana, Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, Royal Family, Prince Harry, Prince William, Prince Charles, The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, UK, United Kingdom, funeral, charity, legacy, Royal Wedding, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Royalty, British Royal Family, Buckingham Palace

Id: pu4KKQJzPgE

Length: 44min 13sec (2653 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2017