Diana and me

28 April, 2011 (14:14) | All articles | By: Stuart Fraser

Here’s the Frankly Fraser column for the week beginning April 25th, 2011. This column also appeared in the Cornish Guardian issue of April 27th 2011.

YOU know, there were people who believed I killed Diana, Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall. They said so in vitriolic letters, many with coloured ink and lots of CAPITAL LETTERS calling me a murdering so-and-so. Ah, happy days.

What happened was…

Back then, I wrote a column in a Sunday newspaper, which was printed some time after midnight on a Saturday.

That week, Princess Diana had been holidaying in the south of France with Dodi al-Fayed, and made appearances in a swimming costume asking, with what turned out to be tragic prescience, the loathsome paparazzi to leave her in peace.

In my column, I said if Diana wanted peace and quiet, it may be best to act as if she did. Cavorting on the beaches of the south of France in a skimpy swimsuit in full view of the lenses may not be the best way to achieve her object, I suggested.

A sub-editor placed upon the column the headline: ‘Time for Di to do or die’. And the paper went to press.

By the time people woke up that Sunday morning, August 31st, 1997, Diana had died in a Paris hospital. In the extraordinary climate of anger and hysteria that developed, I could understand why so many readers thought I was the devil incarnate.

Nearly 14 years on, however, I suggest my comments, which I never retracted, are still relevant.

It seems the tragic death of a young mother hasn’t changed much. Her son marries in two days time, amid a climate of media and public frenzy that has genuinely shocked me.

Flags, biscuit tins adorned with the faces of the happy couple, street parties, Huw Edwards solemnly advertising ‘one of the most significant broadcasts of our time’ on BBC1, souvenir magazines, souvenir DVDs, TV films. Gawd bless yer Ma’am. All the paraphernalia of the celebrity industry that many believe contributed to Diana’s tragedy.  

Leave aside the question of whether we need or want a monarchy, and leave aside the question of the millions being spent celebrating the marriage of one young couple at a time of immensely damaging austerity measures across the country.

Until now, it has seemed to me, William has kept a reasonably low profile, and until the engagement I couldn’t even spell Middleton. The media has played a dignified part in this, respecting negotiations with the royal family about reasonable access and times of privacy.

How different things are now.

It seems to me the poor couple are being plunged into a storm of attention as bad as anything William’s parents experienced – possibly worse, given the technological advances made in the last decade and a half.

And if all this attention is taking humble, yet Satanic, me down memory lane, what must it be like for Diana’s family?

Many say that William and Kate have to pay the price of attention for a life of luxury funded by public money.

I don’t agree. Just as the accident of birth shouldn’t confer unearned wealth and privilege, so the accident of birth should not confer unearned pressure and unhappiness.

I hope very much that the frenzy that is reaching a climax as I write, and reminding me so vividly of dark and far-off days, will peak on Friday and then evaporate very quickly indeed, leaving the happy couple to their lives.

As long as we have the anachronism of a royal family, they will face the attention and scrutiny of media and public – but it should be measured attention and scrutiny, and it shouldn’t be surrounded by the hysteria of cheap celebrity. We’ve got Simon Cowell for that.

WEDNESDAY, April 20: first spotting of the ‘d’-word in print. Drought.

I wonder if it will have the same effect on the weather as I do whenever I cut the grass?

Comments

Comment from Mr T.
Time May 19, 2011 at 9:36 am

!

Pingback from FraserWords » How much fuss over those puppies in the window
Time September 17, 2012 at 11:02 am

[…] who once murdered Princess Diana. As those of you who have been with us from the start will know: http://www.fraserwords.co.uk/?p=57 Read that old piece from before William and Kate’s marriage, and you will marvel afresh at my […]

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