Princess Di fever
by Bex Appleton
As crass as it may sound, I do not get the big deal about Princess Diana and the fuss generated after her death on August 31 1997.
During this month again Princess Diana has featured in the media.
This time new footage taken of her final hours while at the Ritz Hotel in Paris has been released. The pictures show Diana, 36, and Dodi al-Fayed ,42, holding hands and later with their arms draped around each other - looking very content, relaxed and happy before getting into their Mercedes vehicle.
I do understand the need for the media’s coverage and following proceedings of the jury inquests at London’s High Court into whether Princess Diana’s death was to be ruled an accident caused by an intoxicated driver, or if outside hands played a role.
After all, the whole world has what appears at times to be an unhealthy desire to know. From this knowledge hopefully silly conspiracy theories can be finally put to rest.
I guess what I don’t understand is why one paper would publish five stories on the same day all written with different angles, though relaying the same information as in my previous paragraph.
Four days before this article others were published by the same paper covering stories on her pregnancy and how we will never know if she truly was pregnant. At the end of the day do these tiny little details really matter?
Granted, it is nice to remember Princess Diana as a beautiful woman, a loving mum and a humanitarian, but instead it feels like the world is wearing rose tinted glasses, and she is painted as a saint.
Unfortunately, we are all human and all have the ability to make mistakes. I do not think it is wise to blind ourselves to the human qualities of a person, if we are to truly honor their memory.
I believe it is time we stepped back from such large tributes to Princess Diana, and the media should stop fuelling our interest.
It’s time to allow her family the ability to move on, for her boys to be able to move out of the shadows of their mother’s death, and the rumours which have followed over the past ten years.
Everyone deserves to rest in peaceand so does Diana.
By closing this chapter it doesn’t mean we are prohibiting acknowledging Di for her triumphs, we’re just giving ourselves the opportunity to move on.
I remember exactly when it happened - I was recording a guitar part for a song my friend and I was working on. How did I react? I went back to what I was doing. I can’t believe people give a shit, to be honest…