TV, books remember Princess Di
20th anniversary of her death brings a ton of attention
Two decades after her death, Princess Diana’s charisma endures. So does the tragic story of the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana was just 36 when she died after the car she was riding in crashed in a Paris tunnel on Aug. 31, 1997. But before her death — and after splitting with Prince Charles — she was still turning heads and attracting headlines. So it comes as no surprise that on the 20th anniversary, everyone is finding a way to remember her.
Publishers are bringing out new books about her, or re-issuing old ones.
The calendar of special programming on television is filling up after broadcast networks got a jump-start in the spring with NBC’s special interview with bodyguard Ken Wharfe on Dateline: The Life and Death of Princess Diana; ABC’s Martin Bashir special The Last 100 Days of Diana; and the Gayle King’s Princess Diana: Her Life — Her
Death — The Truth on CBS. And PBS had its own Dianarelated content in May with King
Charles III, a film version of the hit stage play about the crisis that ensues when Prince Charles becomes king, Duchess Kate of Cambridge turns out to be Lady Macbeth in haute couture, and Diana appears as a ghost haunting her ex-husband and sons.
USA TODAY surveys upcoming commemorations of the celebrity princess: