Maritimers remember 'the people's princess' 25 years after Princess Diana's death

As the memorial continues to grow at the Flame of Liberty statue in Paris near the spot of the horrific crash that killed Princess Diana 25 years ago, visitors to the Halifax Public Gardens remember when they learned the woman known as the 'people's princess" was gone, at 36 years old.

“I was at a wedding of a friends’ wedding,” recalls Carolyn Lynch. “I remember being in the ballroom after the ceremony and it being announced somewhere, and it was just an awful feeling.”

“I cried,” remembers Lillian Lynch. “And I was so sorry for her children, and I wonder if she had lived how things would be different.”

As the world watched and mourned, former CTV Atlantic chief news anchor Steve Murphy was in London covering the outpouring of grief, after flying there soon after learning the news.

“It is very much as if London has had its heart broken,” he said in a live broadcast on Sept. 3, 1997.

“Already the city was completely gripped by the grief,” Murphy recalls observing when he first arrived in London. “The outpouring was like nothing I had ever seen or have ever seen since, and frankly in the internet age, I’m not sure that we would ever see it again.”

British expat Rosie Cameron was still living with her parents in England when the news of Princess Diana’s death broke.

“We just sat in complete disbelief, because this was somebody that we thought was invincible,” she remembers. “She was this amazing person who was a presence in everyone’s life.”

Like so many, Cameron was glued to the television, watching the aftermath unfold.

“The footage outside all the palaces was unbelievable, all the flowers, the whole place was just mourning for this person that everybody believed that they knew in one way or another.”

Five years later, Cameron found herself working for the Royal Warrant Holders Association, a job which put her in regular contact with members of the Royal family, and the staff who ran the Royal Household.

“The one thing that I was told (about Princess Diana), is that she was always happiest when she was causing mischief,” Camera laughs. "And I think that means basically the Royal Household didn't like somebody who was unpredictable.”

But that rebellious nature led Princess Diana to push the boundaries of Royal constraints, and became part of what endeared her to so many.

“She did have a very human touch, she was a very down to earth personality,” says Barry MacKenzie of the Monarchist League of Canada. “I think that was a bridge for a lot of people, to the institution which had typically been conservative in nature and tight-lipped and traditional.”

“I think she brought that opportunity for people to see the real human side of monarchy,” adds MacKenzie. “That wasn’t perhaps as prominent as it had been previously.”

MacKenzie says, with Princess Diana, the public learned Royals are people with problems, too.

In turn, the Royals, he says, also learned they would have to evolve for their public.

“She may not have been the first member of the Royal Family to have that common touch, but she reinvigorated that style of monarchy,” says MacKenzie.

That more relatable style is now seen in her sons, says MacKenzie, and in the evolution of the monarchy as a whole.

“I think that long-term impact is what a lot of us will remember, the fact that it sort of added a new stamp to what monarchy was all about.”