After Lady Diana transformed from a shy London Kindergarten teacher into the much admired
Diana, Princess of Wales.
After Princess Diana would birth two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
After Princess Diana's royal marriage had crumbled and she sat down for a indepth interview
with BBC television pulling back the veil of her hardships wed into the Royal family.
After 2.5 Billion people tuned into the television broadcast of her funeral in the fall of 1997
making it one of the most watched events in history.
There are very few moments in recent history where most people the world over will remember
exactly where they were when they heard the news; Princess Diana had been killed in a
car accident on August 31st 1997. I for one was on my parents driveway and my mother ran
out of the house weeping. Following her Royal divorce Diana was stripped of her royal titles
but also of her security protection, this left the most photographed woman in the world
to have to deal with the public and the paparazzi by her own means. Despite her driver Henri
Paul being chalked up as the cause of the crash due to drinking, rumours persisted for
years that her death. One conspiracy theory was that her passing was part of an assassination
arranged by the royal family. It was Diana's connection with the public that would force
the Royal family to break from many a tradition and adapt to a new era of monarchy.
What's going on guys? My name is Michael McCrudden and in this video we are going to take a look
at the effects Princess Diana's death had on the world, the legacy she left behind and
the still exisiting conspiracy theories that surround her untimely passing in this video
titled AFTER They Were GONE. I've done other videos in this series on on Elvis, Tupac & Biggie
so be sure to check out the AFTER They Were GONE playlist. Also feel free to leave your
condolences in the comments down below and for more on the life of Diana we released
a Before They Were Gone video. Aright, here we go.
Princess Diana passed away on August 31st 1997 at 4am
in Paris around 3.5 hours after her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel. It didn't take
long for word to spread accross the globe. Time seemed to stop as people collectively
shared their grief and disbelief. Buckingham Palace became a shrine to Diana as Brits placed
flowers and cards while openly weeping in the streets.
There was anger aimed towards the Royal family who remained
in Scotland with Harry and William. The British flag did not fly at half-mast outside of Buckingham
Palace which made the front page of the tabloids. The Sunday morning following Diana's death,
the royals went to church, but Diana’s name wasn't even mentioned at the service. Acts
like this would be analyzed time and time again as evidence that the Royal family had
played some role in her death, although in truth, these were the normal acts of tradition
for the Royals while deadling with such an unprescedented ordeal. Queen Elizabeth the
2nd was widly criticized for not immediately responding publicly to Diana’s death. She
made her first televised address in decades from Buckingham Palace on September 5th.
The Queen continued: “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who
never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I, for one, believe there are
lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her
death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.” This was a massive signal of
change for the monarch and the Queen was actively taking a page out of Diana's book, connecting
with the people on an emotional level while allowing her to regain the good will of her
subjects.Diana's funeral took place on on the morning of September 6, her funeral procession
commenced from Kensington Palace and ended at Westminister Abbey. More than 1 Million
mourners packed the street to watch, with 15-year-old Prince William and 12-year-old
Prince Harry joining the final stretch of the four-mile procession behind their mother.
An estimated 2.5 billion people around the world watched the service.
During which Elton John performed Candle In The Wind which had been re-written in tribute
for Diana. Her brother Charles gave his eulogy where he took subtle shots at both the Royal
Family and the media for the treatment of his sister.
Diana was buried on an island in the middle of an artificial lake called the Oval Lake,
located in an area of Althorp grounds known as the "Garden of Pleasures". The place was
chosen by her brother, because he said he can "be cared for smoothly by the family and
allowed to be visited privately by Diana's children whenever they wish.”
Although Diana was dead, her impact on the world would not be forgotten and she had left
a lasting mark on the monarchy altering centuries of tradition. Her sons would carry on their
mothers charity work but not from the confinds of a royal palace but in the field, interacting
with the public. They would offer intimate interviews about their own personal struggles
and most importantly, chose to marry whom they loved rather than entering into pre-arranged
partnerships. Also, Prince Harry would never have been caught partying it up in Vegas if
he didn't have is mother paving the path proving to the world that Royals are normal people
too.
In September of 1999 a French investigation concluded that the driver Henri Paul, who
was legally drunk at the time was resposible for the accident which took his, Dodi Fayed
and Princess Diana's life. This decision was not enough to silence conspiracy theorists
or Dodi Fayed's father Muhamed Al Fayed.
Rumors never ceased to circulate rumors that it was a mission carried out by the British
secret service M16, at the request of royalty. Many speculate that Diana had plans to marry
with Dodi Al Fayed, some even questioned if she was pregnant at the time of her death
and there is plenty of evidence to support such claims.
Diana wasn't removed from the car crash vehicle for almost 37 minutes following the crash.
A police officer who was with her in the car reported her holding her stomach in pain.
It was a total of 81 minutes before she left the tunnel on the way to the hospital and
the ambulance drove at an incredibly slow pace. Those close to Diana described her as
a habitual seat belt wearer and it was suspicious that all 17 CCTV cameras along the route were
either turned off or not working at all.
Furthermore, in the months leading up to her death, Diana sent out letters to two close
friends, Butler Paul Burrell and her solicitor Lord Mitchum. In them, she stated that the
royal family were “planning her death” and stated that it would be carried out in
a car accident.
To silence debate once and for all, The British Royal Coroner opened up an inquriy into Diana's
death which four years later, resulted in the jury determining that Diana and Dodi were
unlawfully killed because of the actions of both the driver Henri Paul and the Paparazzi.
This would settle any more legal inquest but many would still have their doubts. I guess
we'll never know unless that guy from the history channel gets on the case.
In 2007, just before the 10th anniversary of her death, Princes William and Harry honored
their beloved mother with a special concert that took place on what would have been her
46th birthday. The proceeds of the event went to charities supported by Diana and her sons.
Kate Middleton not only inherited Princess Diana's engagement ring but also the full
support of the Royal family. Kate wasn't thrown into the role of Princess and sought to figure
it out for herself but instead was coached on every aspect of public life and given the
full support of her husband.
The July 4 issue of Newsweek magazine comes out with a computer generated, digitally aged,
Princess Diana walking next to her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, on the cover. The
issue is meant to commemorate what would have been the princess' 50th birthday.
Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton also remembered Diana when naming their second
child, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, who was born on May 2, 2015.
Continuing Diana's charitable efforts, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was
founded after her death to provide resources for the countless issues she had brought attention
to throughout her life. And in, 2013, the fund was incorporated into The Royal Foundation
of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
As for the rest of the story... well it lives on in Diana's memory and through her two children,
because this is AFTER They Were GONE. My name is Michael McCrudden.