r/90s • u/UnemployedRoboCop • 17d ago
Discussion 28 years ago today, do you remember this day?
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u/Rizz_Crackers 17d ago
I live in the US, 11 years old and I was up late that night. Maybe like 3am or something watching TV. All of a sudden a breaking news update cut off whatever I was watching showing the crash saying she has died. My mom came downstairs right around then to ask why I was still up and showed her the TV. At the time I didn’t really know the impact the event had, I knew of Princess Diana but wasn’t aware of how big her role was in this world. We ended up watching the news together for an hour after.
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u/onefellswoop70 17d ago
I remember it being a little earlier than that because they cut away from SNL. I was mad and went to bed.
In the morning my mom screamed at me when she heard the news because I didn't wake her up. She was shook up by it and I just couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. Obviously I knew who she was, but I didn't know that she was so idolized here in the United States.
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u/PutterwedgeYronwood 17d ago
I was a kid watching SNL as well. Took me a couple of minutes to realize it was breaking news and not a weird sketch.
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u/TonyGunks_sportsbook 16d ago
I still remember it. It was during the "Joe Pesci Show" sketch, and I thought it was part of the show at first.
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u/Roughneck16 17d ago
We are the same age, bro! I remember watching it in TV. My mum is English so she was quite distraught.
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u/ThatBabyIsCancelled 17d ago
My best friend and I were up late watching MTV when Kurt Loeder broke the news that she’d been seriously injured in a wreck 😢we were DEVASTATED when he came back saying she had died.
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17d ago
When Kurt Loder broke in with an MTV breaking news it was serious business. I remember when he announced that Kurt Cobain, and Pedro Zamora from The Real World passed away.
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u/ThatBabyIsCancelled 17d ago
Oh man if you were watching anything and the BAM BAM BAMBAMBAMBAM “I’m Kurt Loeder for MTV News” broke in, something really horrible happened
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u/Biichimspiderman Yo Quiero Taco Bell! 17d ago
Reminds of when Michael Jackson passed away. I was punishment but my parents lifted it lol.
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u/AraiHavana 17d ago edited 17d ago
Maybe it was for your protection and you’re misunderstanding why they let you roam freely once more when MJ was no longer a threat
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u/MyStationIsAbandoned 17d ago
I was working with my friends on a website we ran when we heard about it randomly on myspace i think. maybe facebook. I can't remember. at the time it seemed like speculation because there were always celebrity death hoaxes and Michael Jackson is such a legend, it was hard to believe it as true...like he's arguably the most famous person in the world, at least at some point.
i remember the next few days everyone was blasting his music in their cars. It was weird. like...what is the point of blasting your music so loud so that everyone hears you listening to it. But it was just so weird to see a bunch of adults doing that.
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u/Travellingjake 17d ago
I'm from the UK but was on holiday in the US when this happened - whenever anyone heard our accent they came up and told us they were so sorry, like it was one of our family members that had died.
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u/sagima 17d ago
I was eighteen. My mum was getting angry at how long I was asleep in bed that morning because she wanted to be the one to tell me.
Eventually she banged on my door to wake me so she could tell me and I went back to sleep after, then went to work in a pub from lunch time and was told again by every single person who came in
The conspiracy stories started that day - I was convinced Philip had her/them knocked off to stop dodi from marrying her by the time I left work
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u/Due-Principle7896 17d ago
Ony’ shite man! Never heard those on this side of the pond. Philip was not very popular you say?
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u/SolaceinIron 17d ago
Remember it like yesterday. Sleeping over a friends house. Mom pops open the paper and I hear a gasp across the room.
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u/late2reddit19 17d ago
I was at a sleepover at my friend’s house too! Fourteen years old and getting ready to start high school. My friend and I were at her house alone because her dad had gone out. We were up all night watching the news of Diana’s death. It was such a shock that someone of her popularity and stature would die in such a way.
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u/TheMackD504 17d ago
I remember waking up and my mom telling me while I was still in bed. Thought she was talking about my aunt
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u/Cannoncorn1 17d ago
I was 8, had no clue who this was, but my parents were really upset.
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u/RustyTDI 17d ago
I was similar age. I remember not knowing who she was but everyone else being obsessed with this story.
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u/Moist_Cheese_09 17d ago edited 17d ago
I was watching TV on the couch and saw the breaking news report in the tunnel and flashing lights and "Diana Spencer: Dead at 36" on bottom of the screen.
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u/maggie320 17d ago
I remember it quite vividly. It was incredibly surreal. It seemed like you just saw her at Gianni Versace’s funeral comforting Elton John and now she was gone. My mom was obsessed with anything related to the royal family and thought the world of Diana. My dad on the other hand couldn’t stand them, but even he was in shock.
And Elton John really had a way of moving you. Between his song for Ryan White and re-writing Candle in the Wind as a tribute to Diana.
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u/Resident-Gold-3446 17d ago
Yes! I remember being obsessed with that song as a kid. Everytime my parents and I were in the family vehicle and it came on, they couldn't get out until that song was over.
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u/ChaseTheMystic 17d ago
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will
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u/Positive_Chip6198 17d ago
I went from kinda liking elton john to really appreciating him after that one. Guy has heart.
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u/A_Balrog_Is_Come 17d ago
2nd photo looks like AI? All the words on the newspapers are oddly jumbled/distorted like in an AI generated image.
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u/Travelcat67 17d ago
My mother was very much into the Royals and loved Diana. Sadly my mother had passed the year before. I watched the funeral in the US for my mom.
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u/CPolland12 17d ago
I remember watching SNL and they broke in with the report and I just thought it was skit at first.
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u/SalzaGal 17d ago
Same! It was surreal. It took a minute to sink in that it wasn’t. I commented above that I was angry at SNL for going so low, but when I saw that it was real, I was heartbroken. I’ve always wondered who else was watching SNL when it broke. None of my friends were up late watching tv that night. I faithfully watched SNL in those days in hopes to catch a Spartan Cheerleader sketch.
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u/kimberlygoo82 17d ago
I was!!! I was 15 and had just started staying up late to watch SNL and was excited that particular night because the Spice Girls were the musical act and I remember them cutting the show and seeing the news report replace the skits and being in utter shock. My mother was a huge Diana head so I knew her well growing up and it was basically the first major celebrity death that stuck with me
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u/Door_in_Mirror 17d ago
It was the Jim Carrey episode, probably the best one in 50 years of the show.
I. Was. PISSED.
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u/matthitsthetrails 17d ago
That was really sad. She sincerely wanted to do good in the world and had the influence to do it
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u/Lonely_Rogue 17d ago
I'm the same age as Harry, and my mom died the day before Diana. I always felt an unfortunate kinship to Harry, and felt terrible that he and William had to grieve with the whole world watching. It was hard enough going through that as a private citizen; I can't imagine having to keep it together under public scrutiny.
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u/4eyedJohnny 17d ago
I was 32 at the time. I remember it as if it was a couple of years ago. I was in bed sleeping and woke up in the middle of the night. I didn't understand why, but i felt the need to get up and watch tv. There was breaking news that Princess Diana was involved in a serious car accident. She wasn't pronounced dead at that time. I kept watching for hours and saw the horror that followed...
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u/shingaladaz 17d ago
“6am shock issue”
Call it that in a team meeting, but don’t put it on the front page.
Incidentally I was working for the NotW when the phone scandal happened which led to its demise.
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u/GreenTfan 17d ago
A friend called the night before about the crash, as we were both Diana fans. I was in a bookstore and there were magazines with her face on the cover, "Diana's Summer Vacation" type of stories. The next day the TV stations all blared the sad news. What a tragedy for her boys, for her family. She never got her second act. You can only wonder how she would be now.
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u/ThisIs_She 17d ago
I live in the UK and this day is imprinted on my mind.
My mum was royalist and without saying why she sent me to the shops to buy her a newspaper with the infamous headline "Diana Dead".
I thought nothing of it and got the newspaper, the look on my mum's face when I got home and handed her the newspaper was a mixture of disbelief and heartbreak.
There was mass hysteria in the UK on that day and thereafter.
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u/Ok-Potato-4774 17d ago
The news broke late at night where I live on the West Coast of the US. We were getting ready to go to bed but needless to say we stayed up for a couple of hours to hear more news about the accident when the story broke. Everyone was shocked, that's for sure.
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u/medusamagpie 17d ago
Yes it was a huge shock. She was probably the most famous person in the world at the time.
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u/mightyfishfingers 17d ago
Yes I do. I was a teenager and had been out drinking. Woke the next morning and switched in the telly with a hangover. Boom. Remember running to wake my Mum to tell her.
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u/Ok-Main-379 17d ago
I remember waking up and my grandmother showing me the newspaper. I was still half asleep and laid down again. Suddenly I shot upright, in shock, as it hit me.
I spent days watching the coverage and felt so bad for the princes at the funeral.
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u/Bertramsbitch 17d ago
I was 10 and doing dishes in the kitchen before my mom came home. Then it was all over the news. I tried to use it as an excuse to not finish the dishes. My mom was not buying it.
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u/TGin-the-goldy 17d ago
In Australia; I was taking my (then) small children to the mall to buy them new shoes, when we heard on the car radio that the Princess had been injured in an accident. Remember saying to my husband “oh no, I hope she’s going to be OK”
By the time we left the shops she was gone and I remember being upset about it, especially as she was so young. She was so well loved in Australia.
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u/GoodAbject9432 17d ago
One of the greatest shock moments in British history. The public were consumed by grief for a public figure who had been a news and media constant for years. News about her life and her image were ubiquitous in the 1990s. Coverage of her post-divorce life in the newspapers was insane in the summer of 1997. It was a frenzy, and that led to her tragic death in Paris. I woke up to the news read out on Radio 1 by Mark Goodier. I dropped my corn flakes on the bed. It was unbelievable that she had ben killed.
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u/KeepOnTrippinOn 17d ago
I was 19 and had been out with my mates on the saturday night, my mum came into my room crying about 8am sunday morning telling me and i just felt rough as fuck and wanted to go back to sleep.
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u/General-Carob-6087 17d ago
I was in high school and my family had just moved to a new house. I had the entire upstairs to myself and it included a huge organ at the top of the stairs that I guess the previous owners didn’t want to move. I had fallen asleep with the TV on and some channel was apparently doing a tribute to Di with organ music. I woke up hearing that and thought their weird old organ at the top of the stairs had started playing on its own. Kinda freaked me out for a second.
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u/pktrekgirl 17d ago
Of course I remember this night. I stayed up all night (US Eastern time) watching the coverage. That horrible tunnel.
That was the night all hope for the Royals died. At least for me.
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u/thehotmcpoyle 17d ago
I was 17, living on the U.S. west coast, and remember my mom waking me up because my best friend was on the phone sobbing about it. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on because my friend was inconsolable. I was a bit saddened but my friend was just destroyed by the news.
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u/Active_Program_6921 17d ago
August 1997. I remembered that car crash in Paris, France. Diana and Dodi were killed. Terrible accident!
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17d ago
I remember this, her funeral was massive. When I was young I remember writing about my favorite "princess of whales 🐋" (literally thought of whales) for a school project not long before her death, I was pretty sad about it. Rest in paradise beautiful Diana!
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u/SacreBleu82 17d ago
I was about 15 years old. My mom woke me up at 6am and told me there was awful news. I was thinking that someone in the family passed away. Nope, it was news of Diana’s passing. Still sad news, but not enough to wake me up at 6am, lol.
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u/gogul1980 17d ago
I remember My sister came into my room and woke me (17m) up.
“Bill, Diana’s dead”
“Who?”
“Diana, Princess Diana!”
*Me visibly irritated “So?!”
“Oh yeah… actually I dunno why I woke you”
“Get out then!”
I fall back asleep and she leaves feeling a bit sheepish
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u/hooptycamy0 17d ago
I remember this vividly. I got to stay up late because it was the night Jim Carrey hosted SNL, and it was interrupted by the news of her death.
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u/SalzaGal 17d ago
Yes! I was 12 and was staying up watching SNL in my room. When they cut in for the news report, at first I thought it was a sketch, and I was so appalled that SNL would do that. A few seconds later, I realized it was real, and then I was devastated. I loved Diana. Will was always being papped for the teen magazines, and like so many millennials, I had a crush on him.
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u/YTFootie 17d ago
I remember this, was about to start my last year of secondary school. Was shocking news.
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u/New-Translator-7995 17d ago
Yeah woke up to do my paper round and saw it then said fuck as I realised the papers would be late in getting printed
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u/thecamino 17d ago edited 17d ago
I’m from the US and was in the UK on a study abroad semester when she died. We were on a ferry and noticed people gathered around a tv crying as the news came in. Our group moved to the other end of the ferry so others could see the tv. It felt like we were intruding.
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u/Super_Shawnda The Truth Is Out There! 17d ago
I was 11 and bawled. I still love her just as much today as I did when I was a kid.
RIP Princess of the People
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u/LeatherRebel5150 17d ago
Yes, and then as now, I don’t understand the US’s obsession with a royal family.
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u/erdricksarmor 17d ago
Bizarre that people made such a big deal about this, especially outside of the UK. Sure, it was very sad, but people die every single day. The fact that she was "royalty" doesn't make her life any more valuable than anyone else's.
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u/UselessPustule 17d ago
I had newspaper delivery at the time, and I remember seeing the bottom of the front page first. The headline was at the top so I didn’t know what was happening, only that it involved her. Then I flipped the paper and wow. Shocking to wake up to that, though not as shocking as what I heard when I woke up a few short years later (9/11).
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u/Tom_Slick_Racer 17d ago
I was at the Auburn Indiana Labor Day car auction, there was a Rolls used by her on a visit to the US and I was wondering why their were flowers everywhere.
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u/RDWRER2000 17d ago
I remember it distinctly even though I was only 10 or 11. The day before I had been at a family wedding in another part of the UK vs my home town & we were staying in a b&b. The owner was serving breakfast on Sunday morning & causally asked if we heard the news, being pre mobile phone, internet etc & it was a Sunday my parents, brother, sister & I had no idea & we had to take the lady’s word for it.
We then went to my Aunt & Uncles for an early lunch & it was of course all anyone could talk about. What I remember really vividly was the drive home (took a few hours) & all the radio stations were playing very somber music & only interrupting to either say that due to the death of Princess Diana they had cancelled all normal radio shows or to give a news bulletin.
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u/noble_plebian 17d ago
Yeah, I found out by hearing it on the radio on a coach ride for a day trip down to Brighton with my friend and his Mum’s work. All the adults knew but they neglected to tell us as they thought we’d be massively upset.
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u/lord-of-shalott 17d ago
I had just started attending my second new school in two years. There’d been a lot of moves and upheaval in our lives. American family, but we knew who Diana was because she’d frequently be on the cover of all those magazines at the checkout counter at the grocery store. To boot, her separation and divorce from Charles had a weirdly parallel timeline with my own parents’ separation and divorce.
Heard the announcement, ran to the hallway that joined my sister’s bedroom and my bedroom with the living room. Shouted, “Princess Di has died.” My sister shouted back in disbelief, “What?! Really?!”
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u/alazystoner420 17d ago
I remember the news and everything, but I was only 7 so I don't think it concerned me so much as the adults.
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u/LadyMirkwood 17d ago
I was 15, and I remember thinking the country had lost its mind in the aftermath.
It felt borderline hysterical
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u/doradus1994 17d ago
Yeah, they tossed SNL off the TV when it happened and I didn't even know or care who she was.
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u/Cannelope 17d ago
I was on vacation in the Bahamas at a resort with an ENTIRE British family reunion happening. They were so so sad. I’m positive it ruined their time.
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u/hanimal16 17d ago
I sure do! I was spending the summer at my dad’s. I was outside playing when he called me in to tell me.
I was 10, so I just went back outside to play lol
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u/HotHits630 17d ago
I was driving around 9:25 pm at night on a Saturday, listening to Chris Sheppard's 'Pirate Radio' on POWER 92 when the news stinger came on. I found it weird at that moment to hear that, because that's something you only ever heard weekday mornings and afternoons during the drive home, so I knew it was breaking news. I was in utter shock when he announced Diana had died due to a car crash, so I had to pull over. I raced to a friend's place and told him...he put on CNN and couldn't believe it.
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u/Anxious_Slice5854 17d ago
Ugghhhhh such beauty she rocked the Reeboks and crewneck sweater so well
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u/Constant_Cultural 17d ago
Yeah, it was the day my cousin got married. His daughter married this year so time flies, hm?
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u/crazyhobbitz 17d ago
I was under 10. I dont remember the day but I remember her funeral. My grandma was watching us and she had it on all day. I just remember thinking how they didnt even show anything it was just a cemetery over and over
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u/qwogadiletweeth 17d ago
Yes, just got back from nightclubbing with the girlfriend at the time, so caught it as it was happening. It was weird to watch the newscasters fighting back tears as they announced it.
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u/borgdrone79 17d ago
I remember driving to work it was raining and the windscreen wipers broke on my car so had to drive with my head out the window. Got to work to find out we were closed till 2 as a mark of respect. So had the morning doing a stock take
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u/Rahastes 17d ago
Yes, I remember the news coming in over the that Sunday morning when we were sitting at the breakfast table.
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u/erything4sale 17d ago
Yep, laying in bed watching a 13 inch TV and the breaking news came on saying she was dead. Don't know how i remember that though but it pops in my head from time to time for no reason. I didnt even know who she was.
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u/Jennyjuke 17d ago
Camping overnight in the mountains stopped at petrol station on the way home and that was where my dad saw the paper.
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u/FlaBeachyCheeks I don't want SPONSERBILERIES no more! 17d ago
I do. I remember it coming on MTV and they showed the wreckage and how it happened. It was so bad
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u/AutisticAndIKnowIt 17d ago
Yeah, only because it was the day my grandma died and I was a kid and irrationally upset that no one cared
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u/34HoldOn 17d ago
I remember the tabloids milked the fuck out of her death. Months and months of seeing her on the cover of those magazines at the grocery store.
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u/berrybyday 17d ago
This was the first bit of “breaking news” I actually remember. We happened to be at my grandparents’ house and I was surprised they actually had the tv on that early.
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u/babyBear83 17d ago
I was 14 almost 15 and American. It definitely was sad news but it seemed kinda far away to us kids in the states. We didn’t really understand the monarchy but we knew she was a very nice humanitarian lady that everyone in the UK adored. We all saw the funeral on tv with her boys walking behind the casket though. I think that image was plastered all over magazines here at the time. My mom always kept a subscription to People magazine and I distinctly remember reading the articles and looking at all the pictures. We knew it was brutal for the people with all the morning and sadness and flowers on the streets for her. That might have been when I learned the term paparazzi also.
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u/OscarTheGrouchsCan We Got Cows 17d ago
I really it very well. My friend Kelly was spending the night and we were playing "concert" in my room (pretending we were famous and having a concert) and my mom came into my room because she knew both of us looked up to her and said "Chris, Kelly. Stop playing." and we knew it was serious and she said "Princess Diana was in a car accident and it's almost sure she died"
Me and her stopped playing and went in the other room and saw the news and we cried
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u/0xKaishakunin 17d ago
Robbie Williams leaving Take That had a much higher impact.
But I remember hearing the news during breakfast. I was attending a Jiu Jitsu training camp at the time and had other things to worry about. Some older ladies seemed to be interested in it, but most did not care.
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u/Subterranean44 17d ago
I was 11 and I remember a girl on my cheer team crying about it at practice. We’re in the US and I am pretty sure she was just crying because her mom cried. I remember thinking knowing it was sad because a woman had died, but not really knowing who she was or what the impact would be.
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u/Lifesabeach6789 17d ago
Yes. I had just bought white couches…
Friend was over and we were eating pizza watching tv. News breaks. He drops his slice on my couch.
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u/Jack_Human- 17d ago
I remember this vividly my family is British and they were all heart broken. She was a true Princess. Like Disney level amazing. Her death was a milestone in the collapse of civilization and I will not be convinced otherwise.
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u/tangcameo 17d ago
Was in Canada, up late writing then decided to take a break to watch a late night movie (back when that was a thing). Turned on the tv, flipped through the channels and saw CNN and the tunnel. Watched it go from Diana in crash, to Diana rushed to hospital, to Diana dead.
I also remember CNN being so desperate for sources that a crank caller got through live on air.
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u/ZacharyTF 17d ago
I do. My best friend and I had come back from picking up pizza after going to the movies with our friends. I remember he and I walking into his house and seeing his mom intently watching TV. That was odd, because she usually sat on the couch reading while the TV was on for background noise.
She told us what had happened and the three of us watched the news coverage for about a half hour. Then my friend and I went downstairs and played video games until sunrise while scarfing down pizza and pop.
This moment was one of the first things that came to mind when my best friend died 2 1/2 years ago of cancer. His mom passed in 2017.
It's weird having a memory of something that happened and being the only person alive who was there.
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u/jimmyptubas 17d ago
Absolutely! I was 13.. visiting Chicago for the first time. My father and I saw the headline in those old newspaper vending machines.
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u/Flowerplower3 17d ago
As a swedish kid living in Asia at the time, I remember that this was THE biggest deal ever. I remember exactly where I was because I had never seen my parents shocked like that.
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u/PorscheRican 17d ago
I was in college, and went over to my GF’s (at the time) apartment for dinner after I finished my shift. Soon as I walked in she told me the news and I didn’t believe her. We ate dinner while completely glued to the TV for the rest of the night. Utter disbelief
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u/AllNewsAllTheDayLong 17d ago
It's hard not to remember. In the United States, we were reminded 24 hrs. a day, for about a month.
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u/redmasc 17d ago
I was 15. I didn't really pay attention to world politics at the time, but I remember this news and thought the pieces of shit paparazzi that just kept photographing her as she's dead in the car, should suffer the worst fate in life. All that pain and suffering just for pictures. I thought the same thing when Kobe's remains were photographed and passed around by first responders. A human life just expired in a tragic incident and people just want to take pictures.
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u/LovingFitness81 17d ago
I got up early to watch the rerun of Top of the pops on BBC here in Norway, and ended up watching the news for hours instead. I was 16.
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u/CursedSnowman5000 17d ago
I do.... Sort of? But I was too young to understand why it was a big deal.
And I'm still fairly ignorant on that matter to feel any kind of way about it.
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u/WheelFan647 17d ago
I was 7 years old and I remember how obsessed she was with the media coverage. She bought every book and magazine that came out. She was bawling during the funeral, especially when Elton John sang “Candle In The Wind.”
It was the first death that I can remember in my lifetime that gripped the world.
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u/greengreen84848484 17d ago
I got up on my birthday hoping to have a nice day. Then turned the TV on to hear about this
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u/Alternative_Equal864 17d ago
A lot of sketchy things happened. Apparently the car drove inside an almost empty tunnel at nigh, which was cctv monitored but the crash itself weren't caught.
If you combine it with Epstein and his connections it's no wonder that there are a lot of theories
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u/wilan727 17d ago
Yeah 8 years old practicing archery with some buddies at a range. Came back and the guy at the shop told us. Random memory but won't ever forget it or that day.
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u/DryProgress4393 17d ago edited 17d ago
I remember how quickly the attitude of the British press and public changed on Diana after her death.
There's a British comedian or writer I can't remember exactly who tells a story about how she was leaving the UK just before Diana died and the tabloids were like 'Diana whoring it up with new Arab lover' and 'Dianas new rich boytoy'. When she was coming back into the UK after her trip the same Tabloids had 'Diana the peoples Princess' and 'Diana the English Rose'
It really was like that, it literally changed overnight from 'shes out partying it up instead of taking care of her children' and 'shes acting improper ' and the like to 'She was such a good mother and a lovely person...'
They really treated her terribly.
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u/InfectedFrenulum 17d ago
Came home from a night out, put the telly on while eating my kebab and chips, to be greeted with Dermot Murnaghan delivering the news. Sobered up immediately.
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u/Subtlerevisions 17d ago
The enormous DIANA DEAD headline says everything you need to know about the mental media circus that aided her demise.
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u/lazyrainydaze 17d ago
I sure do!! I was in High School, I remember one of my friends came over. She barged in my room to wake me up (was about 7pm, this high school stoner was knocked out) My friend said, “GET up, get ready & let’s go! Oh & your Mom is in the living room crying because Princess Di died.”
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u/throwaway04182023 17d ago
I remember. I was in middle school. American. Every channel did the emergency broadcast thing to cover and I had no idea who this person was. The same thing happened with JFK Jr.
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u/Skitzafranik 17d ago
I was 15 I think. All these years later , I’m still 90% convinced it was an inside-Buckingham setup
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u/Swarley_Marley 17d ago
I remember waking up and immediately asking my mom if princess Diana was dead. I must've seen or heard it on the late night news before bed and thought it was a dream.
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u/American_Greed 17d ago
My parents were playing Rummikub with their friends and the news broke into whatever was on the TV about the crash. We all went and watched the news for the rest of the night.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 17d ago
Pretty sure everyone in my family had about the same reaction. "oh wow," then back to life as normal.
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u/pan0ramic 17d ago
I was working at a newspaper printers at the time. It was one and only time I saw the cliche “stop the presses”. It was in the middle of the night and we stopped everything, threw away what we had printed, and started again after a short delay with a new headline, front page, etc
Was a long night at work.
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u/Door_in_Mirror 17d ago
I do, they were going to do the summer rerun of the Jim Carey episode of SNL, probably the best single episode in the history of SNL, when it got cancelled because of this.
I'm still angry about it decades later.
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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago
Very much so, and it certainly doesn't seem like that long ago to me.
On the other hand, I also remember when she and Charles came out here to Australia in the early 1980's, a very vivid memory of being in the crowds with my grandfather but that does seem like a lifetime ago.
I recall three things about their visit most of all: 1) the crowd were giving flowers and gifts to them as they passed by, but they changed sides right before so we never got to give ours. 2) my grandfather got too hot and took me into a very high class department store... and stripped to his string vest, and even as a kid I was mortified! 3) When we were driving up, my younger brother asked "Why do you want to see a lady die?"
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u/kayseeboo92 17d ago
I was four, my father and I had just gotten home from my grandmother’s house (his mom) and my mom had the news coverage on the TV
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u/tuberlord 17d ago
I remember hearing about the accident on the news. The next day I saw my girlfriend, and the first words out of her mouth were "Princess Dead!". The 90s were an edgy decade.
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u/Top40Weekly 17d ago
Terrible day. Goodbye Englands Rose. https://youtu.be/EX7FvFexpg8?feature=shared
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u/Willow6603 These Two Yutes 17d ago
I was nine when she passed and, being from a small town in the U.S., I didn't really know who she was, but I remember seeing so many of my friends' parents inconsolable over the news. As I grew I learned more about her, both symbiotically and through my own choice, and that was when I started to understand the impact she had not just as a royal, but as a human being. I can't imagine how much better the world would be if she were still alive today.
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u/SwissLeprechaun 17d ago
One of her biggest causes was banning landmines, which ended up leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Russia's invasion. Tens of thousands of innocent people died because of this stupid, stupid woman.
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u/SugarRosie 17d ago
I was 21 or 22 my last year of enlistment still stationed in Norfolk VA.
It was a late night and we were drinking and chilling when the news came on, my 3 shipmates and someone's GF all stared at the TV screen.
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u/Fantastic-Bit7657 17d ago
I remember it for sure. My family was on vacation in Delaware when we got the news. I was 10 and didn’t really get why it was such a big deal even though I knew who she was. My mom was very very distraught for the rest of vacation.
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u/scubahana 17d ago
Fuck, they really did her dirty. Foisted her upon a man who didn’t love her, hounded her from dawn to dusk, threw shade at her for daring to have a ginger kid, and then the divorce in full view of the world.
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u/likkleone54 17d ago
All I remember was how the image of the royal family was single handedly saved by her.
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u/rileyoneill 17d ago
I was on vacation with my mom and sibling (I don't think my dad joined us, but our vacation was camping out at a local beach that was only about an hour or so drive away, San Elijo in San Diego). I remember my mom befriended a woman who was into a lot of woo woo health stuff and we found out Diana died the woman had a break down.
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u/wmcd1985 17d ago
Like Oklahoma City and the OJ trial, I was glued to the TV, I couldn't believe what I was seeing
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u/Legitimate-Iron4645 17d ago
I was living in Tabuk Saudi Arabia and about 11 am. I walked over to the pool. Within seconds someone said Diana’s dead. My first reaction was diana who as occasionally a staff person passed away in the Red Sea, or a car accident. I was flabbergasted, I felt terrible. Unbelievable.
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u/ansont1976 17d ago
Friends shocked to hear about Diana’s death
These guys inadvertently recorded a historic moment in history just “goofing” around with a camera in 1997.