Today's Kindness #157: August 31, 2022
The People's Princess 👸🌷
A quarter of a century after her death at the age of just 36, Princess Diana remains a source of fascination to people around the world and her fate still casts a shadow over the British royals.
Diana was killed on Aug. 31, 1997, when the limousine carrying her and her lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed in the Pont de L'Alma tunnel in Paris as it sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.
Her death plunged the monarchy into crisis, coming after the highly public disintegration of her marriage to heir Prince Charles with its revelations of feuding, adultery, and the misery she had felt in her royal role.
Millions globally mourned the "people's princess", as the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair described Diana, who was one of the world's most recognized and photographed women.
Twenty-five years on, her allure shows little sign of faltering.
There has been "Spencer", a movie about the tumultuous end of Charles and Diana's marriage; "The Princess", a documentary by Oscar-nominated director Ed Perkins; while the hit Netflix drama "The Crown" has focused on Diana in its recent series.
There have been books, countless newspaper articles, numerous TV programs, recriminations over a controversial 1995 interview she gave to the BBC, and even "Diana, The Musical", a much panned and short-lived Broadway show.
"Diana still has an impact, there are still documentaries being made about her, stories written about her, people are still intrigued by this woman," said author Andrew Morton, whose 1992 biography first exposed the deep divisions in her marriage and with whom she secretly cooperated.
"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."
~ Princess Diana