She’s been gone for nearly thirty years but the late Diana, Princess of Wales still manages to dominate the headlines and inspire column inches, and so today, we’re taking a look back at five of the ways Diana was still one of the most talked about royals in the world in 2024.
Last Christmas – and this one, not to mention many others
Yeah, sure, there’s been a lot of will-they-won’t-they surrounding the Royal Family’s Christmas festivities at Sandringham as Andrew and Fergie dropped out, followed by Beatricce and Eugenie only for Beatrice to drop back in.
And when the Prince and Princess of Wales didn’t turn up for the pre-holiday lunch at Buckingham Palace the week before Christmas—this event is for the wider family, many of whom aren’t invited to Sandringham—that also caused speculation. But you know who else had a terrible time at Sandringham Christmas? Diana.
She tried to leave as soon as she could! She’d escape before lunch if she was lucky. It’s one of the only things Diana and Queen Camilla have in common—they both try to leave as early as possible! And while she hated it, you can’t imagine how lonely that first Christmas was without he royals…
You can set your watch by it. When the holiday season rolls around and the press begins speculating on who’ll be invited—and who won’t be, though they never are these days—Diana’s name inevitably gets tossed into the mix as a reason why us plebs might be happy we don’t have to spend Christmas Day with the royals.
Anyway, see you in exactly 12 months, when these stories start up again!
Out of the woodwork every year
Diana left us far too soon, and every year as the sad anniversary approaches, we get new interviews and remembrances and insights and rumours and gossip about the late royal.
This year her fired chauffeur decided to speak out for the first time; we once again asked, our eyes rolling skyward, ‘what happened that night and will it finally be revealed in this latest, salacious television documentary that’s just going to present the exact same evidence all over again? Answer: no. We already know what happened that terrible night. A drunk driver crashed at high speed and was killed, along with two of his passengers.
Of course, the Earl Spencer, Diana’s younger brother, paid public tribute to his late older sister, as he’s wont to do—honestly, I’d rather hear from relatives than anyone else, though I respect why Prince William and Prince Harry mostly don’t.
While it’s heartwarming to hear, 27 years after the fact, that Diana is still relevant and those lucky enough to know her or meet her have such fond memories of her, all these years later, it’s just clickbait.
Fergie keeps the friendship alive
Sarah, Duchess of York, made headlines in the last month for an interview she gave to The Sunday Times in which she spoke about the loving friendship with Diana, who she called a “younger sister” and how her friendship with Queen Camilla has developed in recent years.
She told The Sunday Times: “Queen Camilla was close friends with Mum [Sarah always referred to Queen Elizabeth II as ‘Mum’], which is why we’re so close now. But Diana was my best friend from the age of 14. That’s why it’s so big that the Queen and I get on now. It’s rather nice, and she reminds me of Mum. I admire the extraordinary support she’s giving this country. I want to do as much for the Queen as possible. I wish they’d ask me to do more.”
Diana and Sarah, recall, were close friends throughout their teenage years and when they both married into the Royal Family, were somewhat infamous for their antics. Despite a falling out near the end of Diana’s life, Sarah has been nothing but sweet about her memories of Diana and the genuine friendship they enjoyed.
And as soon as the interview was published, the media ran with the angle of Sarah being friends with both Diana and Queen Camilla. They’ve grown closer! She’s so close to Queen Camilla despite being friends with Diana. Despite!
Readers, King Charles and Diana separated over 30 years ago and were on good terms before she died. Let’s leave the pitting these women against each other in 2024, okay?
Private letters, public auctions
If you’ve got a personal letter or a Christmas card from Diana, or, if you’re lucky enough, a clothing item, it’s de rigeur to sell these priceless artifacts at auction.
A collection of letters and cards from the Royal Family—including a Christmas card from the then Prince and Princess of Wales—fetched £12,000 at auction.
A letter Diana wrote to an AIDS patient went on auction in May and sold for £1,500. Back in the summer, ‘intimate’ letters from Diana sold for £51,850. I can’t even begin to list all the items Julian’s Auctions sold in June (clothing, fashion sketches, letters…) but the total was over $1.5 million.
So check your closets. Ask your grandparents if they ever got a written reply from Diana. You might be sitting on a goldmine and your treasures may get you a headline for the payday!
So many nods!
Everything, and I mean everything, was a ‘nod’ to Diana this year. We should all have chiropractic appointments for all the nodding we’re doing to Diana.
Prince Harry nodded at her when accepting an ESPY Award. Jennifer Lopez nodded at her when she got a manicure. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex nodded at her with their Christmas card. Catherine apparently nods at her all the time: for fashion, for health… Even Princess Charlotte’s nodding at her. We’re even rehashing baby names to nod at Diana! A missing engagement ring? Nod to Diana. An inheritance bequeathed by Diana? A nod to Diana. World travel? A nod to Diana. I’m not even out of articles published in the last six months and I’m already exhausted!
Listen folks, not everything is a nod to Diana. You know how I know? Because Diana didn’t set every trend. She didn’t carve every path. She didn’t dip her hands into everything. She’s admirable and imitable, for sure, but sometimes things just happen. Diana wore clothing in every colour of the rainbow—Catherine, Meghan, Camilla and Charlotte aren’t nodding at her with every fashion choice.
Can we stop nodding, please, and let these women live without comparing their every move to Diana?
And people are still talking about Diana….
There are many other ways Diana stayed in the headlines this year that I haven’t even gotten into.
There were countless headlines about rapper Nicki Minaj asking for a moment of silence for ‘Princess Diana’. Apparently Diana predicted the feud between her sons? (Is there an implication that she didn’t do anything to stop it with her foresight?) Life hack! You won’t believe what Diana used as an elastic to keep a tiara in place (you’re going to have to click this one, I’m not spoiling it for you). Somehow JFK Jr. got dragged into Diana’s life (another deceased famous person who desperately needs to be left alone for a while).
Diana garners clicks, and yes, I realize the irony that I’m contributing to it. But when we turn every little aspect of her life into clickable content—and all the content mills around the world churn out their own versions of the story ad nauseum—we risk diluting her memory for what it should be: a dynamic, resilient young woman who left a mark on the world and did real good while she was here reducing to ‘sweet nods’ and rehashing some of her most turbulent moments for clicks.
Let’s do better in 2025.
