Person of the Week: Diana, Princess of Wales

Portrait by Richard Foster, RP

What would have been a “fairy tale” was a life shadowed by pain and doubt. Though some will debate the nature of her true character, no one can deny that Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of the most beautiful and fascinating women of the last century.


August 31 marks the anniversary of her tragic death in 1997. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you remember her wedding to the Prince of Wales. I recall sitting downstairs in our family room as a child, watching her in her magnificent dress on that day. Since then, I’ve always had a soft spot for Diana, and I was terribly saddened to learn of her death.

We all know all of the tabloid junk. Let’s look past that now. Here was a woman who came from the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family—rooted in centuries of power and prestige. She married the Prince of Wales. Here’s someone who could have been vain and vapid—intolerant and shallow. Yet, she wasn’t. No matter what life threw at Diana, she soldiered on. She was human—subject to the same highs and lows that all of us are, and, so she reacted as any human would. However, she was undeterred in her missions. She put two priorities above all else—protecting her children and helping humanity.

Her visits to patients with AIDS and Leprosy were not the stuff of photo-opportunities. She touched, she talked, she genuinely cared. She made it her goal to try to make people feel better, to make them feel wanted, loved and important and to try to give them some of the things that she seemed to feel she lacked in her own life. Diana worked with the homeless, the elderly and the lost. Through her efforts, she looked after soldiers, people battling addiction and people who felt they had nowhere else to turn.

She was effortlessly beautiful whether in couture or khakis. Draped in diamonds or wearing a helmet, her beauty came from within. Hers was a light that could have been extinguished by circumstance, yet she kept it burning as brightly as she could. For that, we can still learn from her today. And, so, one week before the anniversary of her death, Diana, Princess of Wales, is our person of the week.