With the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death days away, there has been a jarring revelation about Queen Elizabeth's plans. Photo / AP
With the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death days away, there has been a jarring revelation about Queen Elizabeth's plans. Photo / AP
The 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death occurs next week, but astonishingly, the royal family has no plans to formally commemorate it.
A new report from The Daily Beast's royal correspondent, Tom Sykes, reveals it is "unlikely" that Queen Elizabeth will publicly acknowledge the anniversary on August 31, while Diana's ex-husband Prince Charles will also remain silent.
"Charles can't win," a friend of the Prince of Wales told Sykes.
"Not saying anything makes him look unfeeling, but if he did say anything he would be accused of being a hypocrite. He'll do what he always does and lie low."
Be that as it may for Charles, the Queen's stance is more of a head scratcher.
"The reason there will be nothing said or done to mark the anniversary of her death is the same reason that there is almost nothing in London to mark her life," Jon Conway, writer of the play Truth, Lies and Diana, told the Beast.
"As a character says in my play, they want her 'airbrushed out of history'. It's quite surreal when you consider she is one of the three most significant royal figures of the last 200 years: you have Queen Victoria, you have Elizabeth II, and you have Diana. The establishment simply do not want any more focus on Diana.
"This is a woman who did untold good in her life, and whatever difficulties she caused for the family, it is unthinkable to not commemorate her."
The Queen and Diana, Princess of Wales. Photo / Getty Images
While none of the various royal households responded to Sykes' requests for clarification, he wrote that Diana's children, Princes William and Harry, are expected to "issue, at minimum, online tributes" to her.
The brothers came together, albeit briefly, in July of last year to unveil a statue they had commissioned of Diana in London. Only a small number of people were there for the event, including Diana's sister and brother.
There were no speeches or live cameras.
Five years ago, in a documentary marking the two decades since Diana's death, William said the family would be lower key in its commemoration of her going forward.
"We won't be doing this again. We won't speak as openly or publicly about her again, because we feel hopefully this film will provide the other side from close family friends you may not have heard before, from those who knew her best and from those who want to protect her memory, and want to remind people of the person she was," he said.
The anniversary comes on the heels of the latest dramas involving Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Sussex launched her long-awaited Spotify series Archetypes this week, to mixed reviews.
William and Harry at the unveiling of the statue last year. Photo / Getty Images
In the first episode of the series, Meghan interviewed her friend Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time. During their conversation the Duchess opened up about the moment she found out her then 4-month-old son Archie's nursery had caught fire during her tour of South Africa in 2019.
The child was not harmed in the incident.
Meghan explained how she was then separated from her son and forced to attend a royal engagement.
"As a mother, you go, 'Oh, my God, what?' " she said.
"Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement.
"I said, 'This doesn't make any sense. Can you just tell people what happened?' And I think the focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels.
"And part of the humanising and the breaking through of these labels and these archetypes and these boxes that we're put into is having some understanding on the human moments behind the scenes that people might not have any awareness of and to give each other a break.
