One of my favourite celebrities, Diana Spencer aka Diana, Princess of Wales comes to mind every Malaysian National Day, August 31.
She died on August 31, 1997 at the age of 36 in a high-speed car crash in Paris, France.
Her car was chased by nosy French and British gossip journalists when it overturned in a tunnel, killing her and Dodi Al-Fayed, the film-maker of Chariots of Fire whose father Mohamad Al-Fayed is a noted Saudi Arabian businessman based in London.
At that time, Diana was having an affair with Dodi.
She was mourned by millions throughout the world, as a fashion icon, humanitarian, non-conformist, champion of the queer and people’s princess.
Her dear friends Sir Elton John and George Michael, two of Britain’s best known gay pop kings, dedicated their hit songs Candle in the Wind (specially re-written for Diana, the original was for Marilyn Monroe) and Jesus to a Child respectively, to their royal patron.
Sir Elton even sang his hit at her official funeral in Westminster Abbey.
Diana’s death was a major blow to me because we both shared a lot in common.
Every August 31, I observe a minute of silence in her memory and every time I express my opinion on her ex-husband Charles’ fitness to rule the United Kingdom, I answer in the negative and nominate their son William as the UK’s future monarch.
I’ve always detested big-eared Charles and I blame him largely for her misfortune. That selfish prick!
Diana and her ex-sister-in-law Sarah Ferguson are British royals I admire for their honesty. They revolted against the skin-deep puritanism of the British royal dynasty, and forced it to have a good, hard look at itself.
Here’s Diana’s story, as told by Wikipedia and Malaysiana1.
Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961 – August 31, 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom.
Their sons, Princes William and Henry (Harry), are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth Realms namely Canada, Belize, Jamaica, the Bahamas, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu [these Commonwealth Realms have the British royal dynasty as their adopted ruling houses on paper but their real heads of state are locally-elected presidents with the title of Governor-General].
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Charles, Diana remained the focus of near-constant media scrutiny in the United Kingdom and around the world up to her sudden death in a car crash in Paris.
Her funeral was followed by a spontaneous and prolonged show of public mourning. She remains popular than ever after death and her mausoleum has a steady flow of pilgrims from around the world every year.
Diana was the youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, later the 8th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances, Viscountess Althorp (formerly Frances Burke Roche and later Frances Shand Kydd).
She was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England, Britain.
She was the third child to the couple, her four siblings being Sarah Spencer (born 1955), Jane Spencer (born 1957), John Spencer (born and died January 12, 1960) and Charles Spencer (born 1964).
Following her parents' acrimonious divorce in 1969 (over Lady Althorp's affair with wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd), Diana's mother took her and her younger brother to live in an apartment in London's Knightsbridge, where Diana attended a local day school.
That Christmas the Spencer children went to celebrate with their father and he subsequently refused to allow them to return to London with their mother.
Lady Althorp sued for custody of her children, but Lady Althorp's mother's testimony against her daughter during the trial contributed to the court's decision to award custody of Diana and her brother to their father.
In 1976 Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, after he was named as the "other party" in the Dartmouths' divorce.
During this time Diana travelled up and down the country, living between her parents' homes — with her father at the Spencer seat in Northamptonshire, and with her mother, who had moved to the Island of Seil off the west coast of Scotland.
Diana, like her siblings, did not get along with her stepmother.
On her mother's side, Diana had Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English [in other words, British] and remote Armenian [that’s Iranian and Asian!] ancestry.
One of her great-grandmothers on her mother's side was the New York heiress Frances Work.
On her father's side, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England.
She was also a descendant of King James II of England.
She was also related to former British Prime Minister [known for his great leadership during World War 2 as well as his racism] Sir Winston Churchill.
Other notable ancestors included Robert Bruce and Mary Boleyn.
Diana's maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a long-time friend and a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the mother of British head of state Queen Elizabeth 2 [many British just call her Big E or Gran-E these days! And her late mother was nicknamed Great-Gran-E! Cool!].
Diana was first educated at Silfield School Kings Lynn, Norfolk, then at Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk and at West Heath Girls' School in Sevenoaks, Kent.
In 1977, she met Charles, who was dating her sister, Lady Sarah.
Diana excelled in swimming and diving.
Diana moved to London before she turned 17.
Charles married Diana on February 24, 1981 at St Paul’s, London.
In the late 1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media.
Charles resumed his old, pre-marital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles [whom he married after Diana’s death].
Asked what part Camilla had played in the break-up of her marriage, Diana commented during the BBC programme Panorama, "Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
In 1995, during the Panorama television interview, Diana confirmed she had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.
Charles had confirmed his own affair over a year earlier in a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby.
Charles and Diana were separated on December 9, 1992.
Their divorce was finalised on August 28, 1996.
After the divorce, Diana retained her apartment in Kensington Palace, completely redecorated and it remained her home until her death.
She publicly dated the respected heart surgeon from Pakistan, Hasnat Khan, who was called "the love of her life" for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship due to cultural differences.
She soon after began her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed.
After her divorce, Diana worked particularly for the Red Cross and campaigned to rid the world of land mines.
Her work was on a humanitarian rather than a political level.
She pursued her own interests in philanthropy, music, fashion and travel — although she still required royal consent to take her children on holiday or to represent the UK abroad.
Diana was a supporter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign that went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the Chain of Hope organisation.
Her contribution to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers was summarised in December 2001 by Bill Clinton at the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS':
“In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. She showed the world that people with AIDS deserve no isolation, but compassion and kindness. It helped change the world's opinion and gave hope to people with AIDS.”
Diana died after a car crash in the Pont de L'Alma road tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the Hotel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was instructed to drive the hired Mercedes-Benz through Paris secretly eluding the paparazzi.
Their black 1994 Mercedes-Benz S280 crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal barriers in front of the pillars. None of the four occupants wore seat belts.
Henri Paul was intoxicated with alcohol while driving. He drove at high speed in order to evade the pursuing paparazzi.
He had consumed amounts of alcohol three times that of the French legal limit.
Fayed's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who was in the passenger seat, was closest to the point of impact and yet he was the only survivor of the crash.
Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly.
Diana was taken to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, but on the way she went into cardiac arrest twice.
She died at 4am [local time] of cardiac arrest.
Her funeral on September 6, 1997 was broadcast and watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide.
An eighteen-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the car crash that killed Diana was caused by Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed while intoxicated.
Since 1998, Dodi's father, Mohamad Al-Fayed (the owner of the Hotel Ritz, for which Paul worked) has claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy and was orchestrated by the British Secret Service MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Fayed's claims that the crash was the result of a conspiracy were dismissed by a French judicial investigation last year.
Diana was buried in Althorp Park, Northamptonshire.
