Princess Diana shaped our idea of what a princess "should be and do," according to experts

25 years after her tragic death, she is still the people's princess.

Diana, Princess of Wales wearing protective body armour and a visor visits a landmine minefield being cleared by the charity Halo in Huambo, Angola
ANGOLA - JANUARY 05: Diana, Princess of Wales wearing protective body armour and a visor visits a landmine minefield being cleared by the charity Halo in Huambo, Angola (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
(Image credit: Tim Graham via Getty Images)
Iris Goldsztajn
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25 years after her tragic death, she is still the people's princess.

Princess Diana's legacy is immeasurable, and to this day dramatically impacts the Royal Family and royal fans alike.

For one royal expert, we can never underestimate how much Diana still influences the way royals are expected to behave generally.

Speaking on Express' Royal Round Up, royal correspondent Richard Palmer said: "The Royal Family is still shaped by Diana really. We see every day, I think, how it changed as a result of her and we see it in the legacy of her two sons and the Diana Award, the charity that was set up."

He added: "I suppose it changed our idea of what a princess should be and do."

For Richard, some of the late Princess of Wales' more divisive decisions are partly responsible for the Duchess of Cambridge's relative freedom to pick issues to champion that might have previously seemed too controversial.

He said: "We do see that reflected, to some extent, in the activities of the Duchess of Cambridge. There were things that were deemed too close to the bone to members of the Royal Family to do before Diana.

"She did them, for example the landmines campaign, and upset quite a few politicians.

"I don’t think Kate has done anything quite as controversial as that."

In her day, the people's princess supported the HALO Trust, an organisation that works to clear mines left behind in zones of conflict. She visited Angola in 1997 to see for herself the devastating effects of landmines on the local population.

Diana, Princess Of Wales, At Neves Bendinha, An Icrc Orthopaedic Workshop In Luanda, Angola, With Victims Of Land Mines.

Prince William met one of the landmine victims his mother met in 1997, Sandra Tajica, at an event at Wembley in 2007. Meanwhile, Prince Harry connected with Sandra in Angola, when he and his wife Meghan went on their royal tour to South Africa in 2019.

While Princess Diana was known for going where no other royal had dared to, the causes she supported always had a tendency to draw much needed attention from the public. So, Kate's late mother-in-law very much paved the way for her to do meaningful work.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.
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