Social media users have condemned the paparazzi’s treatment of Princess Diana after archive footage of the royal taken in the 1990s was leaked to TikTok.
During her lifetime, Diana spoke about the negative aspects of the fame that came with marrying the royal family in 1981, and the paparazzi intrusion was a prime example.
Viral videos uploaded to TikTok show instances where the princess was surrounded by photographers who followed her car as she left the gym or met friends in London.
A compilation video of Diana and the paparazzi posted by user murwdiana has received over 130,000 views and more than 15,000 likes. Two clips from this video show the Princess entering and exiting her gym in Chelsea, near her home in Kensington Palace.
The princess regularly attended classes at the Chelsea Harbor Club gym, which each time attracted banks of photographers. To curb the intense interest in photos of her in such private moments, the princess often wore the same clothes on multiple days, making the pictures from one day almost indistinguishable from the next.
Also included in the compilation is a clip of Diana in a light gray suit, who can barely reach her car due to the crowd of photographers. She left an engagement at the Royal College of Nursing in London’s Cavendish Square in 1994 to a friend, Catherine Soames.
Another TikTok video that has gone viral in recent days shows Diana with her sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale on a visit to Rome in 1996. Uploaded by user princess.diana.spencer, the clip is captioned “The Paparazzi”. and shows the princess and her sister leaving their hotel at the end of their visit.
As Diana and McCorquodale entered the street, over 100 photographers mixed with curious members of the public rushed their car but were held back by police.
When McCorquodale attempted to get into the car in front of her sister, a guard appeared to mistake her for a fan and almost held her back. Amid the drama, Diana waved to the crowd before closing the car door.
The post has been viewed over 400,000 times and received more than 38,000 likes.
Some comments on the videos have criticized the paparazzi’s treatment of Diana, particularly regarding her role in the circumstances that led to her death at the age of 36 in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
“The paparazzi have a lot to answer for,” wrote one TikTok user.
“You made sure she’s gone now,” said another.
One user wrote: “They never left them alone, of course they made millions upon millions from their photos.”
Since their deaths, Princes William and Harry have spoken out about the paparazzi’s treatment of their mother, as well as media intrusion. Speaking in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and LegacyWilliam has been open about his mother’s molestation.
“I think if you look back 20 years ago, people would be horrified if they knew exactly what happened,” he said.
He continued, “I think it was an industry that had gone quite astray, lost its sense of propriety, lost its perspective on what’s appropriate. When you’re the Princess of Wales and a mother, I don’t believe being chased by 30 guys on motorbikes blocking your path, spitting at you, yelling at you and reacting really badly to get a reaction from you to get and make a woman cry in public to get photos I don’t think that’s appropriate.
“I remember her sadly most of the time [Diana] ever cried over anything to do with press intrusion,” William said.
“Harry and I, you know, we’ve been through that and one lesson I’ve learned is never let them in too far because it’s very difficult to get them out again. You have to maintain a barrier and a boundary because when you cross it, when both sides cross it, there can be a lot of pain and trouble.”
James Crawford Smith is latestpagenewss royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on latestpagenews’s The Royals Facebook page.
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