Post Stories 1998

The Royal Family, One Year Later (Aug. 31)
This weekend, as Britons troop to church services and memorial marches marking the first anniversary of the fateful auto accident on Aug. 31, 1997, the national sorrow persists. What has sharply changed, though, is the public attitude toward the royal family.

'Dianaland' – Britain's Graceland (July 11)
The place is formally known as Althorp, but the cheeky British tabloids have come up with a more fitting name: Dianaland. On the grounds of his ancestral estate, Charles Spencer, 34, opened a shrine, museum and souvenir stand in memory of sister, Princess Diana.

'Diana Museum' Opens at Family Estate (July 1)
A nation still infatuated with Princess Diana will immerse itself in a flood of new memories when the "Diana Museum" opens to the public at the lavish country mansion where she grew up.

Guard: Diana Conscious After Crash (March 3)
Trevor Rees-Jones, the bodyguard who survived the crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, has told a newspaper here that he remembers hearing her calling out her boyfriend Dodi Fayed's name just after the impact.

Post Stories: Sept. 21, 1997

Frenchman Who Drove Diana Is Buried in Home Town
Friends and family said goodbye today to Henri Paul, the Ritz Hotel assistant security director who was driving the car in the crash that killed him, Princess Diana and her friend Dodi Fayed.

Diana's Guard Can't Recall Paris Crash
French investigators today questioned Trevor Rees Jones, the lone survivor of the Aug. 31 auto crash here that killed Princess Diana, her friend Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul, and found that Rees Jones has virtually no memory of the accident.


Prince Charles Says Sons Are 'Coping Very Well' With Loss
Prince Charles publicly praised his sons today for showing "enormous courage and the greatest possible dignity" after the death of their mother, Princess Diana, and, in his first appearance since the funeral of his former wife, he said that both he and the two young princes would "always feel that loss."

Police Say Fiat Possibly Linked to Diana's Death
French police are searching for a small blue Fiat that may have played a role in causing the automobile crash that killed Princess Diana and two others.

Kitty Kelley's Palace Peek
Kitty Kelley’s latest celebrity biography, "The Royals"—a hefty group portrait of the Windsor dynasty that the Washington writer had spent four years researching, might face even more carping and catcalls than Kelley’s exposes usually provoke.

The Princes and the Driver: 2 Lives Converged in Death
The second week after Diana's death has ended with the investigation increasingly focused on Paul, who was driving the Mercedes S-280 whose crash killed all three of them. It seems clearer than ever that if Paul's path had not crossed that of the princess, they and Fayed would be alive today.

Post Stories: Sept. 11, 1997

Diana's Driver Had Deadly Drug-Alcohol Mix
Henri Paul's bloodstream contained a deadly mix of alcohol and drugs when the Mercedes he was driving slammed into a pillar in a highway tunnel Aug. 31, killing Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and Paul, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

From 20 Pence to Millions, Donations Flow to Diana's Fund
In less than a week, the memorial fund established in the name of Princess Diana is rapidly becoming one of the biggest charities in Britain.


Third Test Confirms Driver Was Drunk
A third blood-alcohol test on Henri Paul, driver in the car crash that killed Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and himself, confirmed that he was well over the legal level, Paris judicial sources said.

British Press Pledges Restraint
British newspapers, reacting to criticism that they had hounded Princess Diana to her death, pledged to restrain future news coverage of her two sons.


Diana Helped Choose Ring
Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed together picked out the diamond ring he gave her hours before they died, said the jeweler who sold them the ring.


Paparazzi Photo Exhibit Opening in New York
The paparazzi are plainly the villains of the hour, held accountable by the public for the high-speed crash that killed Princess Diana. But could they also be artists in spite of themselves? That is the underlying assumption of a timely two-part photography exhibit opening in New York.

London Still Overwhelmed With Grief
The day after Princess Diana's funeral, the British people refused to let go of her. Cars clogged the streets and tens of thousands of mourners put on another astonishing show of emotion.


In Their Grief, More Citizen Than Subject
The reaction to Princess Diana's death has been dubbed the "floral revolution" — it's a cry for a new Britain that has put leaders and institutions on notice.


Diana's Death Brings Out Good and Bad of Net
The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, has brought to the fore the very good and the very bad of the Internet.


The Circle of Life
A Briton who gave birth on the day of Diana's funeral reflects on the cycle of living and dying.

A Sorrowful Farewell to a 'People's Princess'
Diana, Princess of Wales, was remembered as a woman of "natural nobility" whose life of compassion and style transcended even the royal family itself.


A New Britain Mourns Its Loss in a New Manner
The people mourned in their way and the royals in theirs on a day in which Diana's life and death became a kind of touchstone by which modern Britain took its own measure.


At Home, Women See Their Lives Mirrored in Hers
Diana showed that even being a princess cannot erase simple unhappiness or everyday joy. For many women, her struggles seemed not so different from their own.


At Cathedral and Embassy, Some Surprised at Sadness
Washington joined the grieving for Princess Diana, answering a feeling of loss that for many had settled darkly and inexplicably over them all week.


Public Life, Public Grief
The globally televised funeral of Princess Diana could well rank as the most widely seen event in history — proving perhaps that nothing unites the world quite so effectively as grief.


In a 'Unique Service,' the Sad, the Sweet and the Very Bitter
Earl Spencer's loving but furious tribute to his sister was the most striking moment of a service entirely without precedent.


With Heavy Hearts, Thousands Pay Tribute
If Diana's secret lay in putting passion over protocol, forging a new kind of popular monarchy, then today's horse-drawn procession through the streets of London marked her coronation.


At Spencer Family Estate: A Long Wait to Say Goodbye
In the place where she grew up, Diana was all anyone wanted to see this late summer day and all anyone, it seemed, wanted to remember.


Charity Presence Attests to Diana's Altruistic Legacy
Diana will be remembered for a great many things; but it has been clear all week that her role as a patron of dozens of charities and cultural groups will be one of her most lasting legacies.


In Paris, the French Move On
Some people observed a minute of silence today at the Paris site where Princess Diana died, but there was no official commemoration of her death.


Determined To Be Her Own Person
Princess Diana and I were improbable friends -- women almost two generations apart, from dissimilar backgrounds, working and living in different spheres.


In the Royal Line, a Story Without Peers
Last week, the people of England took the helm of government. And yesterday, the millions outside Westminster Abbey led those inside in spontaneous applause.

Ritz Hotel Tape Shows Diana's Last Hours
Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were hounded by photographers across Paris in the hours before their deaths, according to a Ritz hotel videotape and other sources.


In Rare Address, Queen Laments England's Loss
For the first time she has gone on live television since the Gulf War, Queen Elizabeth II paid personal tribute to Princess Diana as an "exceptional and gifted human being."


Reaching Out to the People, Queen Says She Also Grieves
For the first time all week, Queen Elizabeth II showed her subjects that she shared their pain. It was what hundreds of thousands had waited to see.


Tragedy Brings Spencers' Frustration to Fore
On the eve of Diana's funeral, her family is making its ire known. The Spencers' bitter remarks stand in contrast to the restraint of the royals.


Royal Protocol Bends Under Weight of Public Grief
The British royal family has been pushed this week into a basic reexamination of its role in a rapidly changing society.


Washington to Give Voice to Warm Memories of Diana
Washington National Cathedral will recognize Washington's claim to memories of Princess Diana in a public memorial service at 1 p.m. today.


A Gathering of Tears
Despite a week of mourning, the sight of Diana's casket through the high, open windows of the hearse drew a collective gasp from the thousands of people on London's streets.