The death of Princess Diana on 31st August 1997 sent shockwaves around the world and amid the outpouring of grief many found it bewildering that Queen Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen. At the time she attracted considerable criticism for initially staying at Balmoral instead of immediately returning to London to mourn with the nation.
However, Dame Helen Mirren believes that the Queen did the “right thing” by putting her grandchildren first following this tragedy. Opening up on the BBC documentary, Queen Elizabeth: Her Story, Our Centenary, which airs at 9pm on 17th April, the actor praised her response.
You may like
(Image credit: Photo by © Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth arrived in London five days after Princess Diana died, the day before her former daughter-in-law’s funeral service. She met with mourners and viewed floral tributes, but she was also aware of how the public had reacted to her absence and addressed this choice in a message broadcast to the nation that evening.
“This week at Balmoral, we have all been trying to help William and Harry come to terms with the devastating loss that they and the rest of us have suffered,” she declared. “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.”
She delivered these words from her heart as the “Queen and as a grandmother” and had begun her address by paying tribute to Diana personally.
(Image credit: Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
“She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness,” she said. “I admired and respected her – for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys.”
Queen Elizabeth had responded firstly as a grandmother and then led the nation in mourning as their monarch – and it makes sense why Helen Mirren believes these were the “right” choices. Prince William was 15 and Prince Harry 12 when their mother passed away and the older Prince has said how in the “dark days of grief that followed [he] found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors”.
(Image credit: Photo by Anwar Hussein via Getty)
Prince Harry has also been open about what it was like grieving Princess Diana in the public eye when they were back in London and seeing thousands of strangers crying for his mother.
“I cried once, at the burial, and you know I go into detail [in Spare] about how strange it was and how actually there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace,” he said in a 2023 interview. “There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother and there we were shaking people’s hands”.
“Everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment,” Harry added.
Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century Sunday 19th April at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.