Princess Diana’s death in 1997 sent shockwaves around the world. Now, The Crown is covering the devastating event in its sixth season, including how Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royal family responded after receiving the news.
Tony Blair, who was prime minister of the U.K. at the time, called Diana the “people’s princess” while paying tribute in the days after her death, Smithsonian Magazine notes. The moniker stuck, and Diana has been known by it ever since. The queen, however, did not immediately comment on Diana’s passing, leaving the public to wonder how she really felt about the princess’s death. Here, we explore how Queen Elizabeth reacted to Princess Diana’s death.
How did the queen react when she found out Diana had died?
Princess Diana died after being in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997. Although she survived the crash itself, Diana died from her injuries after being transported to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, the Associated Press says. Understandably, the world eagerly awaited comment from the royal family, but Queen Elizabeth remained silent for several days after the tragedy.
When the queen failed to release a statement in the first days after Diana’s death, the general public grew angry, The Washington Post recalled. The monarch stayed out of sight at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, along with other members of the royal family, including Diana’s sons, princes William and Harry. According to the Post, the British subjects were particularly upset that Diana’s coffin was at St. James’s Palace in London while the royal family was elsewhere. But it seems the royals’ absence was for an important reason.
Later, Elizabeth would reveal she had been spending time with her grandsons in the wake of their mother’s sudden and untimely death. “This week at Balmoral, we have all been trying to help William and Harry come to terms with the devastating loss that they and the rest of us have suffered,” she said in a speech on September 5, five days after Diana’s death, the royal family’s website says.
In an interview with CNN in 2012, the queen’s first cousin Margaret Rhodes confirmed the monarch’s desire to remain at Balmoral, saying, “She was being a proper granny. What was the point of bringing the boys down to sit in London with nothing to do but sit there feeling sad about Mom?” The Crown’s sixth season depicts Elizabeth’s desire to spend time with her grandsons at Balmoral, rather than returning to London too quickly. However, as the show also notes, the monarch’s strong sense of duty meant she did need to return to Buckingham Palace to pay tribute to Diana publicly.
What did the queen say about Princess Diana’s death?
In the wake of Diana’s death, the general public was eager to hear from Queen Elizabeth. The queen finally addressed the nation in her September 5 televised speech about the Princess of Wales. “First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself,” she said. “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.”
As well as promising to support Diana’s sons, the queen paid tribute to the princess’s memory and the impact Diana had on the world. “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her,” she said. “Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.”
In a September 2022 appearance on Today (via People), former PM Blair discussed the queen’s reaction to Diana’s death, saying, “In the end, she understood, because always her duty came first.”
“She had to respond to this extraordinary outpouring of grief about Princess Diana … a sense that something had happened that shouldn't have happened, and that Diana had been taken from people who really did love her,” he said. According to Blair, the queen was well aware she needed to address the nation regarding Diana’s death, even though she didn’t do so immediately. “She sensed it, and then she responded,” he explained. “And when she responded, she responded perfectly.”
The queen’s emotional speech followed an unexpected appearance by the monarch at the gates of Buckingham Palace on September 5. Having returned from Balmoral with the rest of the royal family, Elizabeth was seen speaking to people who had gathered at the palace to pay tribute to the late princess. The queen also viewed the sprawling wreaths, flowers, and gifts laid out in front of Buckingham Palace in Diana’s memory, The Washington Post said.
What did the queen do at Diana’s funeral?
Any initial anger at Queen Elizabeth reportedly dissipated at Princess Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997, at Westminster Abbey in London. Per The Washington Post, the monarch broke protocol at the funeral by bowing as Diana’s casket passed by. Typically, people bow to the queen, and not the other way around—meaning that her gesture was one of immense respect, and it did not go unnoticed.
The former Princess of Wales was subsequently buried on the grounds of her childhood home of Althorp, on an island in the middle of a lake, per the BBC.
