The first time in my lifetime that I remember the world feeling united was after the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in 1997. I was working at CHML in Hamilton but put 680 News on through the house, because they were live with continuous coverage. After the paparazzi chased their hired car into a Paris tunnel and it crashed, everyone wondered – would she live? Minute by minute it seemed less likely, although she was alive after the collision. Prince Harry recently said one of the hardest parts of what happened for him and his brother was knowing that their mother was still alive in the back seat of the car and yet photographers did nothing but continue to take photos of her.Â
I called my Program Director and asked if I could go on air, even though it was Sunday and no live programming was scheduled. My colleague John Hardy and I disseminated the facts as they became available and took phone calls so people could express their grief and sadness. The lines were jammed for two full hours.
By her own accounts, Diana was treated like crap by the royal family. Conversations with friends reveal that she asked the Queen what she should do after she discovered her husband, Prince Charles, was having an affair with his old paramour Camilla Parker-Bowles. The Queen’s response was, I don’t know. Thanks mother-in-law.
We were struck by the tackiness of a tribute statue at Harrod’s Department store in London, England, then owned by Dodi Fayed’s father Mohamed Al Fayed. But what’s a grieving Dad to do and who are we to judge? It certainly became an attraction and it helped people remember that Diana wasn’t the only one who was killed that night, August 31,1997.
For all of the raw deals she was given by her ex-in-laws, Diana turned her celebrity into a lightning-rod for good deeds. She held weeping AIDS patients when there was still fear over how the disease could be transmitted. She visited people in war-torn areas of the world and made the removal of land mines one of her missions. She did more good than most with her wealth and celebrity and she probably would have loved being a Grandma. I admired her and after her life was over, many of those who criticized her realized they admired her too.