The past few series of The Crown have been gearing us up for the moment that shocked the nation in 1997: the death of Princess Diana.
The first half of the Netflix show's sixth and final season, out today, covers the lead-up to the late princess's fatal car crash in Paris, from her holiday with Dodi Al Fayed, to the kiss that dominated tabloid front pages, to the fateful trip to the French capital in late August. But it also focuses on how the Royal family reacted to Diana’s death.
As we know by now, Peter Morgan’s show provides a broadly fictionalised account of what may have played out behind closed doors in the various castles and palaces. So what actually happened when the Royals found out about Diana's death?
On 31 August, 1997, Diana was involved in a car crash in the Pont de L’Alma in Paris, said to have been caused by her driver's attempts to escape the chasing paparazzi pack. Diana died shortly after, as did Dodi, along with the driver, Henri Paul. Trevor Rees-Jones – a bodyguard employed by Al Fayed – was the only survivor of the crash.
According to Christopher Andersen, who wrote The King: The Life of Charles III, the then-Prince Charles was “ashen and trembling” when he received the 4.30am phone call revealing Diana's death. “He let out a cry of pain that was so spontaneous and came from the heart. Palace staff rushed over to Charles’ room and found him collapsed in an armchair, weeping uncontrollably.” He added: “I don’t think people realise how really stricken he was by her death. I interviewed the nurses in the hospital who saw him when he came into the room and saw her body for the first time, and he looked like he’d been hit in the face.”
Tina Brown, author of 2007's The Diana Chronicles said: "He was absolutely distraught. He fell apart. He knew, instantly, that this was going to be a terrible thing, that... he will be blamed, that they will be blamed, for the death of Diana.”
Charles wanted to take the royal aircraft to Paris to take home Diana’s body, but according to Brown, the Queen initially said no, but later relented. Charles also told Harry – who was just 12 years old – that he couldn’t go with him, as he was too young.
Royal vs. public reaction
In the show, Dominic West as Prince Charles is heard on the phone saying: “This is going to be the biggest thing that any of us have ever seen.”
He was right. The British public took to the streets in unprecedented displays of mourning, but the masses were outraged when the Royal Standard flag at Buckingham Palace wasn’t flown at half-mast (as is tradition when members of the Royal family die).
The public demanded to know why Queen Elizabeth had not acknowledged Diana’s passing. After an outcry, four days later the Queen dispatched a spokesperson to address the issue, saying the family were “hurt” by suggestions that they were “indifferent” to the tragic accident.
A day later on 5 September, the Queen gave a public address, calling Diana “an exceptional and gifted human being.” She added: “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, especially her devotion to her two boys.”
The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princes William and Harry then went for a meet-and-greet with the public outside Buckingham Palace, reading the many tributes, flowers and messages left for Diana outside.
Diana’s funeral took place on 6 September in Westminster Abbey, and the young princes walked behind her coffin in a funeral procession. Encouraged to do it at the time by Prince Philip, who according to Sally Bedell Smith in her 2017 biography Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, told them: “If you don't walk, you may regret it later. I think you should do it. If I walk, will you walk with me?”.
However, it was a decision that Harry came to regret, and he later revealed that he felt pushed into it. In an interview with Newsweek, he said: “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that. I don’t think it would happen today.”
After the funeral, Buckingham Palace considered restoring Diana’s Her Royal Highness title – which she lost when she divorced Charles – but her family turned the offer down. According to CNN, a palace spokesman said officials spoke with Earl Spencer hours after he said in his eulogy that “she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”. The source added: “Their (the Spencer family's) very firm view was that the princess herself would not have wished for any change to the style and title by which she was known at the time of her death.”
Diana was then buried on an island within the grounds of Althorp Park, the Spencer family home.
The first half of The Crown series 6 streams on Netflix from November 16.
