Tony Blair
British Prime Minister

She was the people's princess.

On August 31, 1997, Lady Diana Spencer, the former wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, was killed with her companion Dodi Fayed in a car accident in Paris. Tests conducted by French police indicated that the driver, who also died in the crash, was intoxicated and likely caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers who consistently tailed Diana during any public outing. Sixteen years earlier, nearly 4 billion people in seventy-four countries had tuned in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana, a young English schoolteacher. Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests, the couple's romance was for the moment the envy of the world. However, before long the fairy-tale couple grew apart, an experience that was particularly painful under the ubiquitous eyes of the world's tabloid media. In August 1996, two months after Queen Elizabeth II urged the couple to divorce, the prince and princess reached a final agreement. In exchange for a generous settlement, and the right to retain her apartments at Kensington Palace and her title of princess, Diana agreed to relinquish the title of ‘Her Royal Highness’ and any future claims to the British throne. In the year between the divorce and her fatal car accident, the popular princess seemed well on her way of achieving her dream of becoming ‘a queen in people's hearts.’