Liz Smith | 08/27/2008 12:00 am
Why Liz Smith Felt 'Robbed' When Princess Diana Died
I’d never given Princess Diana much thought before I actually met her at a Fashion Institute of Technology event in the Metropolitan Museum and been pleased at her beauty, charm and human touch. When she gave her infamous BBC interview to Martin Bashir, I was more interested in her as a woman scorned and willing to blow the whistle on her royal in-laws. And I wanted to say, “You go, girl!” As public icons go, I liked her a lot.
But when she died I was stunned at my emotional reaction. I realized I felt I’d been “robbed.” She was a world-class celebrity, young and controversial, and I think I viewed her as the motherlode I would be writing about for years in future coverage. So I sat down and did a sprawling not-so-good article about how the world — the Western world — responded so deeply to her death because they were one and all yearning for religious feeling in a secular world. They were using her death as an excuse for their need of panoply, open mourning, getting together to express their feelings.
Then I went to London a few days after her funeral. I saw the acres of flowers, the signs, the Teddy bears, the mourning windows at Harrods, all of it. That seemed to somehow satisfy me that I had lost a glamorous creature who would have been grist for the gossip mill for eons to come. This secret, really low attitude wasn’t very nice, I suppose, but I’m trying to be honest.

























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