PARIS –
Mourners celebrated the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in Paris on Wednesday, laying flowers and leaving messages on the bridge above the underpass where she was killed in a car crash.
Flowers and images of Diana adorned the gold-leaf-covered Flame of Liberty, a replica of the Statue of Liberty’s torch at the north end of the Pont de l’Alma that became her unofficial memorial in the French capital.
The princess was just 36 when the limousine carrying her and her lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed into the tunnel under the bridge as she sped away from the photographers chasing her on motorbikes.
“Already 25 years (25 years already),” read one of the cards left on the memorial, where a trickle of locals and tourists – surrounded by media film crews – came to pay their respects, lay flowers and take pictures.
“Forever in our hearts,” read another with a photo of Diana left by someone who identified themselves as Monique from Luxembourg.
People also left floral tributes outside Kensington Palace in London, Diana’s former home.
“Instead of being 25, it’s like yesterday. It takes you back to that time,” said Jane Crook, 64, a school worker from Wales.
Morgan Hindle, a 23-year-old support worker from Manchester, said: “She was such an amazing person and an icon and I think she meant so much to so many people… I think she’s someone which must be remembered forever.”
Millions around the world mourned the “people’s princess”, as Diana, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, described her in 1997.
She was one of the most recognized and photographed women in the world and a prominent supporter of humanitarian causes – including children’s charities and landmine clearance – when she died.
Mother of Princes William and Harry, her death plunged the monarchy into crisis, after her marriage to heir to the throne Prince Charles disintegrated with her revelations of the feuds, adultery and misery she had felt in his royal role.
Diana’s continued fascination with life was illustrated on Saturday when a black Ford Escort she drove in the 1980s sold at auction in Britain for 724,500 pounds (US$844,000).
Reporting by Antony Paone; Written by GV De Clercq; edited by John Stonestreet, Alexandra Hudson