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What created the Diana phenomenon? The origin story of the ‘people’s princess
The death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 led to an outpouring of grief, both in the United Kingdom and around the world. Edward White, author of new book on the princess and her legacy, explores why she made such an impact
- Matt Elton
Published: July 9, 2025 at 3:16 PM
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What was it about the woman who would become known as Diana, Princess of Wales, and the times in which she lived, that led to her being held in such popular affection in the final decade of the 20th century? As a figure from an undoubtedly elite background who was so close to the highest echelons of British power and hierarchy, how did she become a heroine of the people?
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Born in 1961 to an aristocratic family, Diana Frances Spencer went on to become one of the most famous figures of the 20th century. Her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981 was watched by an estimated global audience of 750 million people, and the births of her children – Prince William, in 1982 and Prince Henry (Harry), in 1984 – and subsequent divorce were equally exhaustively documented. Her untimely death in 1997, at the age of 36, resulted in an outpouring of public grief.
Here, Edward White, author of new book Dianaworld: An Obsession, explores some of the reasons behind Diana’s unprecedented rise in the public eye.
A troubled beginning
Despite her aristocratic roots, Diana’s early life was not always the easiest. Her father, John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and mother, Frances Roche, separated in 1967, and divorced two years later. White believes that this was a formative experience for the future princess.
- Read more | Diana: the rebel princess
It was Diana's experience of the divorce as a young child that really connected her to the rest of the country
“Diana’s parents went through a very, very messy split, and in my book I posit that it was her experience of the divorce as a young child that really connected her to the rest of the country,” White reveals on an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. “When I went back to look at the newspaper coverage of Diana from the early 1980s, I was struck by how often the story of her parents’ divorce was portrayed as being an integral part of her personal story, and to her ability to connect with ordinary British people,” he continues. “Indeed, we can see it as a kind of ‘origin’ story, in terms of her desire for security and love, and as something that led her into her perhaps slightly wrongheaded marriage to Charles.”
Lady Diana Spencer, later to become Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, 1980. (Photo by Bill Rowntree via Getty Images)
A fairytale figure
This phenomenon of storytelling that surrounded Diana’s life was another key factor in endearing her to the public, White argues – particularly because her life was so extensively documented by the tabloid press.
“There was a famous article in one of the tabloid newspapers in the late 1970s, warning the royal family that what it called ‘the era of deference’ was over,” he says. “This characterises the extraordinary aggressive approach [by the media] to Diana: she was treated in a way that no other person entering the royal family had ever been treated before.”
And, he argues, Diana also had a personality that accentuated this.
Diana was a gift to tabloid editors, because she seemed to embody so many different really appealing character types
“Diana was a gift to tabloid editors, because she seemed to embody so many different really appealing character types from the moment she emerged [into the public eye],” White says. “She was the beautiful daughter of a very grand member of the aristocracy, but because she [had] worked part-time as a nanny, nursery assistant and cleaner, she was also presented as a kind of Mary Poppins or Cinderella figure.”
Diana was presented as a "kind of Mary Poppins or Cinderella figure," says Edward White. (Photo by Getty Images)
Through this combination of an appealing personality and the attentions of the tabloid press, people in Britain had extensive access to this royal figure – or, at least, specific impressions of her.
“Diana was loaded with all of these cultural archetypes from very early on: there was no end of fairytale stories attached to her,” White argues. “She played up to them to some extent, but the public’s relationship was very much set up in those early years by the tabloid press interest.”
A blank canvas
Yet even though her image was often in the public eye, people knew very little about the real Diana – which, seemingly paradoxically, was another key reason people were able to identify with her, says White.
“The fact that hardly anyone heard her speak when she appeared in public, for years and years, was absolutely crucial for the way in which Diana was received by people,” White says.
“Indeed, for a whole chunk of her public life, most people didn’t really have much of idea of what she sounded like,” he continues. “The women that did the voices for [satirical TV puppet show] Spitting Image, for instance, commented that it was actually quite easy to do her voice because you could just do a generic posh woman’s voice and it would probably be fine.”
Yet there were trade-offs from this public silence. The benefit of it, says White, “is that people were able to take what they wanted to from her.”
Princess Diana at home in Kensington Palace, London. (Photo by Getty Images)
Drawing a parallel to another cultural icon from earlier in the 20th century, White says that “Diana was often compared to Marilyn Monroe – another figure who was a kind of blank canvas upon which people could project their own stories and fantasies.”
- Read more | Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage
People believed they could discern what she was really thinking by her reading her surface appearance
“Diana was a powerfully visible figure, but there was always something kind of withdrawn about her. People believed they could discern what she was really thinking by her reading her surface appearance – whether that was the tilt of her head, her very expressive eyes, or what she chose to wear. All of those things were very important in helping people from different backgrounds make some kind of connection with her.”
A mother for the nation
One aspect of Diana’s life that was also viewed in multiple ways was the image of her as a mother. White points to the work of art historian Colleen Denney in drawing parallels between Diana and a figure from earlier in history: Alexandra of Denmark. “Denney has done some really interesting work comparing official portraiture of Diana with her two sons to that of Alexandra back in the 19th century,” he says. “If you compare those images, they are almost identical, because Diana was often presented as a very traditional Victorian mother.”
Diana runs barefoot as she takes part in the mother's race during Prince Harry's school sports day in Richmond, London in June 1991. (Photo by Anwar Hussein via Getty Images)
“Yet at the same time, there are other photographs of Diana as a mother that are utterly different and make her look like a very contemporary figure,” White continues. “The most famous examples would include Diana running barefoot at a school sports day [in 1991], and the [1993] photograph of her with her sons on the log flume at Thorpe Park.”
The example of motherhood, White argues, is a striking illustration of Diana’s ability to hold different sets of identities at the same time, which appealed to different groups of people. “She could be both a kind of Victorian mother, and at the same time a mother for the post-feminist age,” he says.
A spiritual figure?
But it wasn’t just Diana’s image that allowed her to connect to the public.
“One of the reasons that we became obsessed with Diana is because she was in the public eye at a time, in the 1980s and 90s, when we were in the foothills of a creeping decay of trust in grand public institutions,” White argues. “Diana became somebody, I think, that filled the gap which that had left – particularly through her public engagement.”
In this sense, White suggests, Diana’s skills were perfect for this particular moment in time.
Diana visiting patients suffering from AIDS at the Hospital Universidade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1991. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
“She had these tremendous personal qualities of empathy and compassion, and fantastic social skills that allowed her to engage with people,” he says. “And this was at a time at which people looked to the royal family for something they couldn’t get from politics or from organised religion. Diana, in her unique way, did manage to offer a type of public engagement that attended to some of our spiritual needs, without her needing to be an explicitly religious or political figure.”
A tragic end
When Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, it sparked a wave of shock and grief both in the UK and around the world.
White suggests that this combination of empathy, myth-making and tabloid coverage, at a point in history when the public were looking for a relatable public figure, led to the princess being a unique historical figure.
“ Although I do think that there is a huge amount written about Diana that is completely over the top, it is true that she managed to do something just in the mere act of being a public figure that nobody else had really been able to do,” he says. “As a result, she became a hugely popular figure all over the world.”
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Edward White is the author of Dianaworld: An Obsession (Allen Lane, 2025)
Authors
Matt EltonPodcast editor
Matt Elton is the podcast editor at HistoryExtra
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