Princess Diana’s Legacy Is Alive.
There is a new conspiracy in town, Princess Diana is alive. Delve into why Diana’s everlasting influence is still being discussed in 2021. Her life is the epitome of mystery and intrigue.
August 31st, 1997. Many people around the world remember where they were this day. A moment where life went on pause to be replaced with grief over the death of Princess Diana of Wales.
Her car collides in a tunnel in Paris, while frantic paparazzi chase after her. With her rumored boyfriend and driver being pronounced dead at the scene, Diana gets rushed to the hospital where she later dies. “My God, what’s happened?” became her last words (Nicolaou, 2020).
But this wasn’t any normal accident. Those involved in Diana’s life and her close public following all had something to say about it. Why was their driver drunk? Diana’s possibly pregnant with another man’s child? What about Diana’s worries of trouble with her car? These questions continue to circle for decades. Although we might never know what is real or fake, we do know one thing, mystery exists.
It’s crazy that by 2021, people care just as much. Diana had a whirlwind life yet a tragic death. I wasn’t born while she was alive, but she seems to have this lasting presence in society. I was compelled to write this story because of how much I knew about her, given that I grew up in a world without her living in it. The amount of influence and intrigue that surrounds her to this day is unmatched by others.
With this continued public need to discuss Diana, a new rumor has emerged. Princess Diana is alive. Now this will need a lot of explanation.
Diana’s Life
Diana remains one of the biggest celebrities of her time. Even the night she died, she was surrounded by paparazzi obsessed over catching photos of her. Her fame made people flock to her.
From charity work to daring outfits, Diana was always ready for any appearance. Besides public life, she was known for practicing transparency of her private life by speaking about her marital issues. Releasing tell-all interviews about her life with Charles wasn’t foreign to Diana.
Diana quickly became known as the “People’s Princess.” A term defining her as a woman just like everyone else, which the public loved. Her lifestyle “valued authenticity over protocol, and humanity over prestige” (Hare, 2020). Something not many royals would dare to do.
She used her fame to raise awareness for a variety of causes. From the AIDS pandemic to active landmines, she worked for the struggles of all people. Many admired her for this reason.
Because of her strong connection to the people, many were in real grief when she passed. Some described it as the passing of “your own beloved friend, mother, sister” (Hare, 2020). It was devastating.
Besides her charming status in the public eye, Diana’s life held mystery. In the years leading up to her death, her publicly encompassed life was full of many private secrets. She wasn’t as transparent as others thought.
Diana’s Secrets
Her marriage to Prince Charles was far from perfect. Ever since the start, the two had little in common (Deerwester, 2017). With a 12 year age difference and opposite images in the spotlight, their marriage quickly took a turn for the worst. As Diana lived her life and publicly shared her troubles in her marriage, her relationship with the royal family broke down (Maranzani, 2020). Both Charles and Diana had affairs that everyone knew about, making Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip outraged.
A year before Diana’s accident, her divorce to Charles occurred; so the royal family didn’t technically associate with Diana when she died. Diana was the mother of Charles’ sons, but besides that, she was viewed as a failed marriage to the royals.
If you want to know how Diana felt after this divorce from Charles and the royal family, you can read it in her own words. Six years after the accident, her personal butler came forward with a letter she had written, just months after her divorce (Bates, 2003). The words of this letter remain etched into the minds of the public.
“I am sitting here at my desk today in October,” she writes, “longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous _ X is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry” (Bates, 2003).
If that doesn’t send chills down your spine, I don’t know what will. Those words prove Diana was fearful of her own death, even specifying it down to a car accident. These details make her story more mysterious.
Her letter continued on to describe her feelings toward Charles. She referred to being abused by the royal system and gave thanks to Charles for all the hell he put her through. Diana thanked him for “the opportunity to learn from the cruel things you have done to me” (Bates, 2003). Although in this letter, she claimed to have no resentment, these words sound anything but civil.
Diana’s Conspiracy
The theories and mysteries are endless. From some believing she was killed off by the royal family to others believing her rumored boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, was the actual target of the accident, all these pieces make the mind wander.
Now 2021 and the theories are still thriving. The popular app, TikTok, has gained millions of users over the last couple years. The app includes dancing trends, life hacks, and more from users all over the world. All you do is record a video with the goal of having millions view and like it. Although not many succeed, there is a rare chance it can happen to you. With this wide range of users and content, the app is sure to be full of mystery and conspiracy. Diana’s story is no different. The platform picked up the story and placed it onto my “for you page.”
@abby_careyyy, a now-famous TikToker, posted and captioned a video “I met a celebrity…who isn’t even supposed to be alive…” which received 2.3 million views. Her video talked about her time working as a server in a resort frequented by celebrities. The resort is described as a remote place, known as a “hidden gem.”
One night, Abby greeted guests at the door and couldn’t help but notice that one of the guests looked like Princess Diana, but older. Abby asked the woman “Has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Princess Diana?” The woman replied she had heard that before.
Abby described her to be around the age of 60, very eloquent, and not that talkative. On Abby’s TikTok account, she went more into more depth on the story through a series of videos describing her time meeting “Diana.” Abby also recorded her own research process of Diana’s death and the conspiracy around it. She uncovered many interesting points that make her story more realistic.
But there is no telling which is true or not. We only know that people choose to believe these conspiracies because of the disbelief over her death. It was such a shocking and unexpected way for her to die that many still can’t believe it. Add on all of the events leading up to her death and there is quite some mystery to her story.
So it makes sense some people believe she’s still alive, because why not? Everything else about her story is shocking, so what if people have actually seen her alive? We will all never know the true story, but there is room for a little doubt to creep in.
Diana’s Legacy
I still see her outfits as Pinterest fashion trends every time I open the app, decades later. Diana is long gone but her presence still reins. The moment I heard details about her life and death, I became hooked. The number of interesting events and mysteries she’s involved with make for a captivating woman.
Her many issues with the royal family struck me while hearing her story. Although she grew up in a somewhat high-ranking family and played with the royal children when she was younger, she still wasn’t good enough for the royals. If not Diana, then who can be? No one seems to be good enough to be a royal, even if you grew up right along with it.
This issue goes full circle to the criticism of Meghan Markle. With the release of her recent interview with Oprah, Meghan holds many resemblances to her late mother-in-law Diana. They both struggled with mental health and self-harm issues while living within royalty. The two never felt fully accepted or protected by the royal family, which could’ve been their future if it were different.
Besides issues of royalty, the manner of Diana’s life and death saddens me. You learn that no matter your status or wealth, things aren’t going to be easy. Diana lived a life struggling with eating disorders, self-harm, and a failed marriage. Her death was a tragic car crash, which she felt the full pain of until she died. She was a Princess, yet her life was like anyone else’s, full of pain and struggles.
If there was a need to fake her own death, she had plenty of reasons why. Her life was surrounded by media and images of a failed marriage to Charles that she couldn’t get away from. Dealing with her own struggles on top of all this couldn’t have been easy. Life can get rough and it did in many ways for Diana.
So believe whatever conspiracies you want, her story remains. I believe she died, but I don’t look at her death as an accident. I don’t know what happened and that’s the mystery of it all. This charming woman somehow found a way to capture our attention in both life and death.
If you have any information about the mystery, share it. Whether or not these points are true will never be uncovered, but the story behind Diana stays alive in discussion.
So remember the day August 31, 1997. If you lived through it or not, it will go down in history. The day Princess Diana’s fame turned into her legacy; a legacy full of mystery that will be told for years to come.
