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Martha Grate will never forget her patients on the pediatric AIDS unit at Harlem Hospital, but one in particular still stands out.

Seven years old and a noted troublemaker, he immediately caught Princess Diana’s eye when the royal entered the ward on Feb. 3, 1989.

Diana made a beeline for the boy, asking, “Are you heavy?” before picking him up to cuddle him. The nurses braced themselves.

“He was a very precocious child,” Grate, the unit’s former nursing director, told The Post. “He was really kind of challenging and when Princess Diana picked him up, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope you don’t act out!’ We were all holding our breath, but he put his head on her shoulder. He hung on to her.”

Diana, 27, was on her first solo tour of New York City , attending ­galas as well visiting with the underprivileged. As the new season of “The Crown” on Netflix tells it, the trip was an escape from her marriage to Prince Charles — and the infidelities being committed by both of them.

But the only thing she was focused on that day was meeting the children. Sadly, said Grate, now 82 and a minister in East Stroudsburg, Pa.: “Most of the kids that were there at that time, they’re no longer with us. By the time they got on that floor, the prognosis was so bad for them.”

As people who were at the hospital that day reveal for the first time, the visit was far more meaningful than “The Crown” can ever convey.

“These children were so very, very ill, and, at the time, not much was known about how to assist them. It was just really heartbreaking. There was so much misinformation about AIDS that people believed: You couldn’t touch a doorknob or sit on a toilet or you would get it,” said Gwen Elliot-McIntosh, who was an administrator at Harlem Hospital and ran a program for women, infants and children. “People thought you had to shun people who had AIDS. It was a very bad time.”

Grate agreed: “People were so afraid to go into the children’s room. We had to encourage the housekeepers to go in there.”

Diana, however, “picked up a baby and looked at the baby like there was no one else in the room . . . She talked to [the children] and hugged them. She gave them love,” said McIntosh, now 72.

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The royal had started her fight against AIDS stigma in 1987 when she declined to wear gloves while shaking the hands of ill patients at Middlesex Hospital in London.

“Basically, it was as if she was saying, ‘If I can love these little children . . . it’s OK — you can, too,” recalled McIntosh, who retired in 2002.During the trip, Diana was joined by her chief of staff Patrick Jephson, as well as a press secretary and a ­lady-in-waiting.

They checked into the Hôtel Plaza Athénée on the Upper East Side, where the duplex penthouse became her suite of choice when she was in town.

Jephson recalled in his book “Shadows of a Princess” how Diana’s team was worried about her meeting the hospital’s pediatrics director, Dr. Margaret Heagerty — “an avowed and outspoken critic of British policy in Ulster . . . Headlines swam before my eyes: ‘Princess snubbed by Republican Granny’ or ‘Republican Doc wrecks tour.’ ”

But all went fine, with Diana quizzing the doctor on the issues of drugs and AIDS. As Jephson writes, the doctor replied: “[Drug users] are irresponsible . . . but we have seen women on drugs with AIDS sit by their dying children and mourn . . . They love their children as you love your little princes .”

Although Diana never returned before her 1997 death in a Paris car accident, her visit still looms large. “I met Barbara Bush, Maria Cuomo,” said Grate. “Diana is the only one who exuded so much compassion.”

Lulu King, now 89, was Harlem Hospital’s recreation director. “I looked into [Diana’s] eyes and she became a glass figurine. She was so still and so beautiful. I told my sister and my father, ‘I don’t think she’s going to live long,’ ” she told The Post. “I don’t know why, I just had that feeling.”

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Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous New York City visit featured on 'The Crown'

• In February 1989, Princess Diana flew to New York City for her first solo overseas tour amid personal turmoil.
• Over the course of three days, Diana met with New York's rich and famous as well as its less privileged, cementing her reputation as a compassionate and modern royal.
• Highlights from Diana's trip included a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program, and the moment when she hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient at the Harlem Hospital.
• The trip has come back into focus as one of the key storylines in season four of Netflix's " The Crown ."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the fourth season of Netflix's "The Crown."

In 1989, 27-year-old Princess Diana found herself caught between two worlds: public adoration and private conflict.  

After seven years of marriage, her relationship with Prince Charles was on the rocks. Both had entered into extramarital affairs: Prince Charles with Camilla , and Diana with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt . 

Diana "was the love object of everyone in the world except her husband [...] she was faced in her mid-twenties with something she found chilling to contemplate: a fairy-tale marriage that had cooled into an arrangement," Vanity Fair's Georgina Howell wrote in 1988 . 

This moment in time is a central focus of season four of Netflix's " The Crown. " Released on November 15, the hit series' newest season depicts the lives of the British monarchy from 1979 through 1990. 

Episode 10, "War," shows how Diana, played by actress Emma Corrin, used a 3-day solo tour to New York City in March 1989 to establish her independence and promote causes she was passionate about amid turmoil at home. 

Here's how the real-life tour happened and a look back in photos.

On February 1, 1989, a 27-year-old Princess Diana touched down in John F. Kennedy Airport for her first royal overseas solo tour and first visit to New York City.

Source: Beneath the Crown

The official purpose of the three-day tour was to "promote British industries abroad," Netflix's Anita Rani explains in an episode of "Beneath the Crown."

Privately, Diana sought to take control of her narrative as conflict brewed between her and the royal family over her tumultuous marriage with Prince Charles.

After landing in JFK, Diana headed straight to a cocktail party hosted by Dawson International, producers of Scottish cashmere, where she mingled with high-profile fashion designers.

Before her visit, American media predicted that Diana, a fashion icon, would spend much of her time shopping in New York's high-end stores, but Diana's itinerary proved them wrong.

The next morning, she paid a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program in Alphabet City.

Diana's visit to Alphabet City marked a departure from previous royal visits to New York. "Diana chose to visit deprived areas of Manhattan usually ignored by the rich and famous," Rani said. "The locals were delighted."

Later in the day, she visited FAO Schwarz, New York's oldest toy store, to see an exhibition of British toys.

That evening, Diana attended the banner event of her tour: a gala hosted at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that included a performance of the Welsh opera "Falstaff" followed by a reception at the Winter Garden in Manhattan.

Diana wore an ivory-and-gold beaded gown by Victor Edelstein, which caught the attention of New York's high society in attendance, according to Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, who hosted Diana at the gala.

Source: People

"Since it was New York, everyone was wearing black [...] So when Diana entered the box, radiant in a magnificent long white dress with a matching bolero jacket covered in jewels, a gasp went up from the crowd," Brooks Hopkins told People magazine.

On her final day in the Big Apple, Diana paid a visit to the Harlem Hospital, where she spoke with doctors and visited the AIDS unit. At one point, Diana, picked up and hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient, generating a flurry of positive press attention.

Source: Beneath the Crown , Los Angeles Times

"Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for," Margaret Heagarty, Director of Pediatrics at Harlem Hospital told Diana, per The New York Times.

Source: The New York Times

Though Diana's New York tour was a short trip, it is acknowledged as a defining moment of her royal career.

In place of "frivolous coverage on shopping sprees and dazzling dresses ... what emerged were headlines about Diana's public displays of compassion for those far less fortunate than the royal family," Rani said.

• Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous Australia tour featured on 'The Crown'
• 16 things you probably didn't know about Princess Diana
• 'The Crown' showed Princess Diana roller skating in Buckingham Palace, and the show's producer says it actually happened
• Buckingham Palace has a secret theater for staff movie nights, but they're reportedly not allowed to watch 'The Crown'

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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The Crown: What happened during Princess Diana’s trip to New York City?

Princess diana’s visit to new york city is featured in the crown ’s season four finale, article bookmarked.

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In February 1989, Princess Diana travelled to New York City , where she embarked on her first official solo tour.

The purpose of the trip, as portrayed in season four of Netflix ’s The Crown , was to “promote British industries abroad,” according to Beneath The Crown ’s Anita Rani, with the “focal point of the trip” meant to be a royal gala for the Welsh National Opera.

Prior to her arrival, the American media also speculated that her schedule would be full of shopping excursions, as the royal had come to be known as a fashion icon.

However, the three-day trip marked a point in the Princess of Wales’ life where she wanted to establish her independence from her husband Prince Charles, take “control of her own narrative,” and raise awareness of causes close to her heart, such as the AIDS crisis.

As shown by actress Emma Corrin, who plays the then-27-year-old princess in the show, Princess Diana’s trip was hugely successful, and cemented her later title of the “people’s princess”.

• How The Crown cast compare to their real-life royal counterparts
• Did Diana almost pull out of the royal wedding?
• The Crown gets Prince Charles and Camilla wrong, former staff say
• Netflix refuses to add disclaimer to The Crown historical inaccuracies

This is what happened during Princess Diana’s trip to New York City.

Upon her arrival in the city, Princess Diana attended a cocktail party hosted by Scottish cashmere company Dawson International.

But by the next morning, her focus had turned towards social causes, with the late royal beginning her day with a visit to the Henry Street Settlement in the Lower East Side, which provides social services, arts and healthcare to the community.

According to Rani, Princess Diana’s decision to visit “deprived areas of Manhattan usually ignored by the rich and famous” came as a surprise to the locals, who were “delighted”.

After a visit to toy store FAO Schwarz, Princess Diana attended the gala for the Welsh Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for which she wore a white and gold beaded gown.

According to former BAM president Karen Brooks Hopkins, the outfit caused an appreciative response from attendees, who were dressed mostly in black.

“Everyone’s in black, and she enters her royal box, which we had beautifully decorated with all these greens and so forth, and she’s wearing white. Kind of a gasp goes up from the crowd, because of her beauty and the fashion of it all,” Brooks Hopkins told Town & Country .

But, one of the most “defining moments” of Princess Diana’s trip, according to Rani, came when she visited Harlem Hospital, where she paid a private visit to the AIDS ward.

During the visit, the royal spoke with doctors and hugged a young patient with AIDS - an embrace that generated positive press coverage and positive responses from hospital workers.

“She did it spontaneously,” Margaret Heagarty, the hospital’s former director of the pediatric AIDS unit, told The New York Times of the gesture. “But she also did the human thing. He was five or six years old, and she just picked him up and hugged him.”

Overall, the reaction to the royal’s trip was overwhelmingly positive, with throngs of people greeting her everywhere she went and headlines declaring her success and praising her compassion.

“What emerged were headlines about Diana's public displays of compassion for those far less fortunate than the royal family," Rani said, adding that the visit also helped “to break down AIDS-related stigmas, and her actions led to a surge in adoption requests for HIV-positive children”.

While much of the trip is accurately portrayed in Netflix’s latest season of The Crown , there is one difference worth noting - the scenes were actually filmed in Manchester, rather than New York City.

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New York Has a Cameo in ‘The Crown.’ Here’s What Really Happened.

Princess Diana visited the city in 1989, a trip featured on the Netflix series and remembered fondly by the people she met.

By Andy Newman

Long shot of the Concorde landing at Kennedy International Airport. Princess Diana gets out of the plane to cheering throngs and heads to a glittering black-tie reception.

Theather Huggins remembers what she was doing that same winter night in 1989. Working at a homeless shelter and just a few months out of homelessness herself, she came back to her apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and picked through her meager closet in search of something to wear.

“I told my kids, ‘I’m going to meet a princess tomorrow,’ and my 9-year-old said, ‘A real live princess, Mommy?’” Ms. Huggins recalled earlier this month. “‘A real live princess,’ I said. ‘I don’t know if I’m supposed to curtsy or bow.’” She chose a royal blue dress, put her hair in curls and practiced drawing the dress out to the side and dipping her knee.

Season 4 of “ The Crown ,” the British royal-family historical drama on Netflix that has viewers glued to their couches, features a three-minute cameo from New York City, cast as a crumbling colossus ravaged by crack, AIDS and homelessness. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

In the season finale, Diana’s February 1989 visit to New York functions mostly as a backdrop for her psychodrama and her unraveling marriage. The princess, played by Emma Corrin, views the solo trip as a test of independence. Her increasingly estranged husband, Prince Charles, portrayed by Josh O’Connor, calls it “an ugly, avaricious piece of self-advancement.”

The official occasion of Diana’s trip was a benefit gala at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the Welsh National Opera, which was performing there. But the princess, who had worked back home to raise awareness of AIDS and domestic violence, also wanted to see firsthand how social problems were being addressed here.

Her visits to a shelter and the city’s first neonatal AIDS ward could have come off as tone-deaf — the cloistered royal crossing the pond to gaze down upon the poor.

But for the New Yorkers into whose lives the princess landed, fairy-tale-like, the visit remains an indelible memory, real yet unreal, of a moment of connection.

The princess’s limo cruises down gritty streets and lets her out at a shelter where she meets a young mother, Linda Correa.

The shelter, the Urban Family Center on the Lower East Side, run by the Henry Street Settlement, was believed to be the first in New York to offer homeless families furnished apartments rather than rooms in squalid “welfare hotels” overseen by the city.

Linda Correa died in 1993, but her daughter, Lameca, and son Raamel remembered bomb-sniffing dogs and bodyguards casing their apartment before the princess’s visit.

“ My mother was in a competition — cleanest house in the shelter,” recalled Lameca Correa, who was 9 then and now works at a group home in Brooklyn. “She won, and that’s how we were chosen.”

“I had on a blue suit,” said Raamel Correa, who was 7 at the time and now lives in Newark and works at a car dealership. “And a tie if I’m not mistaken.”

His sister said she recognized the princess from TV. “I told her how much I loved her, and she told me she loved me, too.”

At the shelter, Diana met with survivors of domestic violence and with workers who helped residents transition to permanent housing, then toured a day-care center. Verona Middleton-Jeter, who ran the shelter, was struck by how many questions she asked and how focused she was on the answers.

Meeting the princess was “the most exciting thing I think I have ever encountered,” said Ms. Huggins, who is 65 and still works at the Urban Family Center.

“When she reached her hand out for us to shake her hand and I shook her hand, my legs just got weak,” she said.

The limo whisks the princess off to Harlem Hospital, where the director of the pediatric AIDS unit, Margaret Heagarty, tells her the children there cannot find placements in foster homes because of the stigma around the disease.

Diana approaches a young boy in a bed, bends and embraces him.

“She did it spontaneously,” Dr. Heagarty, now retired, recalled recently. “But she also did the human thing. He was 5 or 6 years old, and she just picked him up and hugged him.”

Gwen Elliott-McIntosh was the administrator of the pediatric unit at the hospital. “She was trying to put a human face on this horrible condition we were in,” she said. A photo from that day shows Ms. Elliott-McIntosh presenting the princess with a poster made by her daughter’s third-grade class. “Welcome Princess Diana,” it says next to a butterfly that Ms. Elliott-McIntosh’s daughter had drawn.

The princess returns home to find nothing changed. She hopes the prince will congratulate her for a successful trip. “You think we couldn’t do that too?” he sneers. “Theatrically hug the wretched and the dispossessed and cover ourselves in glory all over the front pages?”

But in New York, the visit resonated.

“From a policy level it was spectacularly good,” said Nancy Wackstein, who worked at the time for Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins as a policy adviser on homelessness and who helped set up the trip to the Urban Family Center. “Many of us were pushing for development of more residences like this to address the homelessness problem,” and the princess’s visit drew positive attention to the effort, she said.

Ms. Elliott-McIntosh’s daughter, the third-grader who drew the butterfly on the poster, grew up to be Eboné M. Carrington, Harlem Hospital’s chief executive. Ms. Carrington recalled that she found the princess’s simple gesture toward the boy in the AIDS ward inspiring, especially when ignorance about the disease was so widespread among people of all races and ethnicities and people with it were treated so badly.

“Just to be frank,” she said, “this white woman wanted to hold these Black babies that certain Black people wouldn’t hold — it was something that taught me about being a human, and being kind and caring about other people.”

Some of the people who met the princess have seen the show. Ms. Middleton-Jeter of Henry Street Settlement was surprised by how little it matched her memory of the day.

“It didn’t even look like New York,” she said. “When they showed the people on the street, I thought, ‘Ooh, where are these people from?’ I didn’t get a real Lower East Side feel for it.”

There’s a reason for that. The scenes were filmed in Manchester in the north of England. The cast and crew of “The Crown” never set foot in New York.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a woman who met Princess Diana, based on incorrect information provided by her former employer, Harlem Hospital Center. She is Gwen Elliott-McIntosh, not Gwen Elliot-McIntosh.

How we handle corrections

Andy Newman writes about social services and poverty in New York City and its environs. He has covered the New York metropolitan area for The Times for 25 years and written nearly 4,000 stories and blog posts. More about Andy Newman

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Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous New York City visit featured on 'The Crown'

Emma Corrin plays Princess Diana in season four of "The Crown"; Princess Diana attends a gala during her first official visit to New York City.Des Willie/Netflix; Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

• In February 1989, Princess Diana flew to New York City for her first solo overseas tour amid personal turmoil.
• Over the course of three days, Diana met with New York's rich and famous as well as its less privileged, cementing her reputation as a compassionate and modern royal.
• Highlights from Diana's trip included a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program, and the moment when she hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient at the Harlem Hospital.
• The trip has come back into focus as one of the key storylines in season four of Netflix's " The Crown ."

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the fourth season of Netflix's "The Crown."

In 1989, 27-year-old Princess Diana found herself caught between two worlds: public adoration and private conflict.

After seven years of marriage, her relationship with Prince Charles was on the rocks. Both had entered into extramarital affairs: Prince Charles with Camilla , and Diana with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt .

Diana "was the love object of everyone in the world except her husband [...] she was faced in her mid-twenties with something she found chilling to contemplate: a fairy-tale marriage that had cooled into an arrangement," Vanity Fair's Georgina Howell wrote in 1988 .

This moment in time is a central focus of season four of Netflix's " The Crown. " Released on November 15, the hit series' newest season depicts the lives of the British monarchy from 1979 through 1990.

Episode 10, "War," shows how Diana, played by actress Emma Corrin, used a 3-day solo tour to New York City in March 1989 to establish her independence and promote causes she was passionate about amid turmoil at home.

Here's how the real-life tour happened and a look back in photos.

On February 1, 1989, a 27-year-old Princess Diana touched down in John F. Kennedy Airport for her first royal overseas solo tour and first visit to New York City.

Source: Beneath the Crown

The official purpose of the three-day tour was to "promote British industries abroad," Netflix's Anita Rani explains in an episode of "Beneath the Crown."

Privately, Diana sought to take control of her narrative as conflict brewed between her and the royal family over her tumultuous marriage with Prince Charles.

After landing in JFK, Diana headed straight to a cocktail party hosted by Dawson International, producers of Scottish cashmere, where she mingled with high-profile fashion designers.

Before her visit, American media predicted that Diana, a fashion icon, would spend much of her time shopping in New York's high-end stores, but Diana's itinerary proved them wrong.

The next morning, she paid a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program in Alphabet City.

Diana's visit to Alphabet City marked a departure from previous royal visits to New York. "Diana chose to visit deprived areas of Manhattan usually ignored by the rich and famous," Rani said. "The locals were delighted."

Later in the day, she visited FAO Schwarz, New York's oldest toy store, to see an exhibition of British toys.

That evening, Diana attended the banner event of her tour: a gala hosted at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that included a performance of the Welsh opera "Falstaff" followed by a reception at the Winter Garden in Manhattan.

Diana wore an ivory-and-gold beaded gown by Victor Edelstein, which caught the attention of New York's high society in attendance, according to Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, who hosted Diana at the gala.

Source: People

"Since it was New York, everyone was wearing black [...] So when Diana entered the box, radiant in a magnificent long white dress with a matching bolero jacket covered in jewels, a gasp went up from the crowd," Brooks Hopkins told People magazine.

On her final day in the Big Apple, Diana paid a visit to the Harlem Hospital, where she spoke with doctors and visited the AIDS unit. At one point, Diana, picked up and hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient, generating a flurry of positive press attention.

Source: Beneath the Crown , Los Angeles Times

"Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for," Margaret Heagarty, Director of Pediatrics at Harlem Hospital told Diana, per The New York Times.

Source: The New York Times

Though Diana's New York tour was a short trip, it is acknowledged as a defining moment of her career.

In place of "frivolous coverage on shopping sprees and dazzling dresses ... what emerged were headlines about Diana's public displays of compassion for those far less fortunate than the royal family," Rani said.

• Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous Australia tour featured on 'The Crown'
• 16 things you probably didn't know about Princess Diana
• 'The Crown' showed Princess Diana roller skating in Buckingham Palace, and the show's producer says it actually happened
• Buckingham Palace has a secret theater for staff movie nights, but they're reportedly not allowed to watch 'The Crown'

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7-Year-Old AIDS Patient Shares Hug With Princess

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The 7-year-old boy in blue pajamas was standing with his nurse in a 17th floor corridor of Harlem Hospital, and when the woman in a red wool suit with black velvet buttons on the sleeves walked by, he looked up at her shining blonde hair.

“Are you very heavy?” she asked, stopping.

Princess Diana bent down, picked up the child, who has AIDS, and hugged him. For two or three minutes, the worlds of poverty and plenty were united as the princess and the patient stood in the hallway, the little boy’s head on Diana’s shoulder, his arms around her neck. With a sad smile, the princess finally put him down.

Moments earlier, on the final stop of her three-day visit to New York before her return to London, Diana had put a question to Dr. Margaret Heagarty, Harlem Hospital’s director of pediatrics:

“When you have the problem of drugs, how on earth are you going to cope with the problem of AIDS?”

“They (drug users) are irresponsible,” the physician told the princess. “But we have seen women on drugs with AIDS sit by their dying children and mourn.

“I have come to the conclusion that just because you are a drug user doesn’t mean you don’t love your children. They love their children as you love your little princes. They are just folks. I have given up judging.”

Diana traveled to Harlem on Friday to visit New York’s municipal hospital system, under strain because of poverty, homelessness and AIDS, after attending a gala dinner the night before under the glass dome of the Winter Garden, on the Hudson River in New York’s World Financial Center.

In Britain, Diana has worked to dispel myths about the spread of the virus, shaking hands with an AIDS patient to show that the disease can’t be communicated through casual contact.

“Do you think people are educated enough about this?” Diana asked the physician.

“No, not enough. But visits like yours help. Our own ‘royalty,’ whatever that is, being a democracy or a republic or whatever, have not done as much as you, anything so symbolic as you,” the director of pediatrics replied.

“I believe we share compassion for our children,” she told the princess. “AIDS is a virus infection. It is a disease. It is not a crime or a sin.”

However, Heagarty also told reporters during Diana’s visit that Barbara Bush, “with not any great fanfare” had toured the hospital’s pediatric unit before the Republican convention “just to see for herself the problems of the children with AIDS.

“I think that may very well translate into additional resources for children with AIDS,” the physician said.

” . . . I think the folks who are required to deal with both the medical care and the social needs of these children are stretched almost beyond endurance and that we need additional resources,” Heagarty continued.

Staffers and patients in the hospital’s lobby cheered when Diana arrived at mid-morning and went straight to an AIDS briefing conducted by Dr. Heagarty in a second floor conference room.

“Do you think this situation is going to get worse?” Diana asked.

“Yes,” Heagarty said.

“In the next five years?”

“Well into the next century,” the physician replied.

Diana then went to an upper floor of the hospital. Nurses, lining the corridor, held out their hands to be touched. Some carried children in their arms. In the pediatrics unit, an 11-month old infant with AIDS was being held by his grandmother. The baby boy curled his fingers around Diana’s finger, and the child gazed up with big brown eyes at the princess. They remained linked that way for two or three minutes.

Diana stroked a pink frilly dress worn by a 23-month-old girl named Monica, who was held by Galye Alston, a nurse in the unit who is adopting the infant, an AIDS patient.

“I brought her here to see you today,” Alston explained.

Diana sat down in a rocking chair next to a young mother holding her baby with AIDS in her arms. She chatted with the mother as they both rocked.

As Diana prepared to depart--with gifts of two small white teddy bears for Prince William, 6, and Prince Harry, 4, and a card signed by local schoolchildren--a worker on the pediatrics floor, Lulu King, rushed up to her and clasped her arms.

“Princess Di, thank you for bringing love and youth and vitality to Harlem,” she said.

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Vault: Princess Diana takes New York City by storm in 1989

NEW YORK (WABC) -- New Yorkers may be a tough bunch, but Princess Diana knew how to melt their hearts.

On Feb. 1, 1989, Diana arrived via supersonic Concorde jet in New York for her first official visit without her then-husband Prince Charles. While the visit fueled rumors of the marital woes that eventually ended their marriage, it was her dazzling smile and personality that won over New Yorkers.

During her three-day visit, the 27-year-old princess was greeted by massive crowds that followed her everywhere as she sought to promote trade between the United States and Great Britain. Still, the princess seemed unfazed by the flashing cameras, gamely mingling with the masses.

Among the starstruck was FAO Schwarz CEO Peter Harris.

"Our view is that this is a fun, happy and positive experience for her," said Harris, the day before Princess Diana was scheduled to visit his toy shop. "And we are all just going to be ourselves and hope she enjoys the spirt that is toys."

The red carpet was rolled out for the princess all around town.

Macy's dedicated a portrait window top her, and at Oliver's restaurant, contestants battled it out to win the title of Diana best lookalike.

Not everyone, however, was amused by the woman then described as the future queen of England.

Around 500 protesters stood outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music as the princess arrived.

"I'm here because that young lady, nothing against her personally, but it's for what she stands for," said Irish protestor Dorothy Hayden Cudahy. "A princess, a royal, family...the whole thing is ridiculous. I can't believe American people get so excited about royalty."

But Diana was not deterred, continuing her Big Apple adventures, which weren't just about cocktail parties and fancy events. Diana went to the Henry Street Settlement to meet with young women who were turning their lives around, and Harlem Hospital to talk with AIDS patients.

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The True Story of Princess Diana's Groundbreaking AIDS Advocacy

The Princess of Wales helped to raise awareness and dismantle stigma around the disease.

In real life, this incident played out very similarly to how it does onscreen. But groundbreaking though that moment was, it wasn't Diana's first visit to an AIDS ward, nor would it be her last. Here's the true story of Diana's years-long efforts to raise awareness and dismantle stigma around HIV-AIDS.

London, April 1987

Diana publicly took on the HIV crisis as a cause in the year 1987, when she opened the U.K.'s first HIV/Aids unit, at London's Middlesex Hospital. During her first visit to the newly opened unit, she made a point of shaking hands with one of the patients , who was terminally ill with AIDS. This was hugely significant, because in the 1980s, stigma around the disease was still running rampant, and many people were afraid to touch those suffering for fear that they could be infected themselves.

In his 1992 biography, Diana: Her True Story—In Her Own Words , Andrew Morton discusses the moment, noting that in shaking the patient's hand Diana had "done more than anyone alive to remove the stigma surrounding the deadly AIDS virus… While she was not able to fully articulate it, Diana had a humanitarian vision for herself that transcended the dull dutiful traditional royal engagements."

New York City, 1989

During her visit to Harlem Hospital, The New York Times reported, Diana "paused to stroke five babies...[then] the Princess noticed a 7-year-old boy in blue pajamas. ''Are you heavy?'' she asked, scooping him up and cuddling him."

This is similar to the moment depicted in The Crown , where Diana walks up to a young boy on the ward and says hello to him. The hospital director explains to her that this boy is one of many on the ward who desperately need foster homes, but people are afraid to adopt them "because of the stigma." Diana, visibly upset by this, hugs the boy tightly as cameras flash.

This scene is not a case of dramatic license being taken—the real-life moment really was just as impactful. Dr. Margaret Heagarty, the pediatric director at Harlem Hospital, told Diana: "Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for."

London, 1991

Four years after the HIV/AIDS ward opened at Middlesex Hospital in London, Diana paid another visit to the ward. This time, she was accompanied by then-First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush. During the visit, Diana had an encounter with a patient which mirrored the one from Harlem two years prior. Morton describes this incident in detail:

As America’s then-first lady, Barbara Bush, discovered when she joined the Princess on a visit to an AIDS ward of the Middlesex hospital in July 1991, there was nothing maudlin about Diana’s attitude towards the sick. When a bed-bound patient burst into tears as the princess was chatting to him, Diana spontaneously put her arms around him and gave him an enormous hug. It was a touching moment which affected the First Lady and others who were present.

In Morton's transcript of Diana's own remarks, she describes this visit as a "stepping stone" in her own quest to finding fulfillment and a sense of purpose. "I had always wanted to hug people in hospital beds," she told Morton. "This particular man who was so ill started crying when I sat on his bed and he held my hand and I thought: “Diana, do it, just do it,” and I gave him an enormous hug. It was just so touching because he clung to me and he cried."

Throughout the 1990s, Diana continued to visit AIDS patients in a number of countries, including at a children's hospital in Brazil and a hospice in Toronto, Canada.

In April of 1991, Diana gave a speech at the Children and AIDS Conference, stating in words what she'd already made clear through her actions. "HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug,” she said. "Heaven knows they need it.” She went on to explain that it was also safe to share a home, a workspace or a playground with an infected adult or child, emphasizing scientific fact and logic over hysteria and bigotry. "We all need to be alert to the special needs of those for whom AIDS is the last straw in an already heavy burden of discrimination and misfortune."

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• The 5 Biggest Takeaways From HBO’s New Diana Documentary, <i>The Princess</i>

The 5 Biggest Takeaways From HBO’s New Diana Documentary, The Princess

D uring her lifetime, Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales , was famously “the most photographed woman in the world,” inciting a media frenzy that set the blueprint for a new era of celebrity . And in the 25 years since her tragic and untimely death at the age of 36, there’s been an almost obsessive fixation on the trials, triumphs, and tragedy of the princess’ stifling and very public life as a royal , providing endless fodder for books, television , film , and even a Broadway musical.

Which is to say that in both life and death, Diana has been under constant scrutiny, an overarching theme of The Princess, a new documentary about the royal airing Aug. 13 on HBO. Directed by Ed Perkins, The Princess takes a subtle but searing look at Diana’s life in the spotlight by solely using archival audio and video footage to depict the narrative of her time as a royal, starting from her whirlwind courtship and engagement at the age of 19 to a 32-year-old Prince Charles and ending with the violent and heartbreaking final moments of her life in a car accident while trying to escape the paparazzi in Paris in 1997.

Because the film deals exclusively in archival footage, including countless media interviews with Diana and the rest of the family, as well as broadcasts about their life, several moments chronicled in the documentary may be familiar to viewers. But a careful edit of this previously aired material offers fresh perspective and insights around incidents in Diana’s life we thought we knew all about. Photos of Diana, lingering on her downcast eyes at a polo game take on more resonance when interspersed with the relentless media coverage of the speculated affair between Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles that was happening at the same time. Civilian-shot footage of Diana and her companion Dodi Al-Fayed trying to leave their hotel in Paris is chilling given the context of their deaths later that night.

With that in mind, here are five ways The Princess reframes what we know about Diana.

It was believed that the media frenzy around Diana would simmer down after the royal wedding

Upon speculation that she was engaged to Prince Charles, public scrutiny and a media circus descended upon Diana, then a shy 19-year-old nursery school teacher. In early footage shown in the film, Diana is followed down the street by the paparazzi while attempting to go to her home, foreshadowing the relentless media frenzy that would follow her ceaselessly and eventually lead to her death. Ahead of the wedding, Diana’s appearance and even her weight were discussed frequently in the media; in one particularly prescient clip, a television presenter takes a poll of the audience, asking if the press should “lay off this poor girl.” In another, a commentator says that the public gaze ahead of the wedding is “the worst that could be thrown at her,” but that it will get “much easier” and that there would be a change in the attitude of the press once she became a part of the royal family. Unfortunately for Diana, this would not come to pass.

Read More: How Princess Diana Created a New Era of Celebrity

Diana and Charles barely knew each other at the time of their engagement

In an awkward and frigid media interview at their engagement announcement in 1981, Charles and Diana are asked what they have in common. They both hem and haw before finally settling uncertainly on sharing a similar sense of humor and an affinity for outdoor activities. The couple had only dated for six months before announcing their engagement, which might account for some of their mutual coldness. It’s worth noting however, that in the same interview, when asked if they were in love, while Diana responded, “of course,” Charles infamously quipped: “Whatever in love means.”

Charles was not happy being eclipsed in popularity by Diana

There’s no denying that Diana’s youth and charisma brought a different kind of glamour to the royal family, something that was never more apparent than during her early public appearances after her marriage to Charles. Footage of their tour of Australia shows how she is clearly the draw for many of the crowds and on more than one instance, Charles acknowledges her popularity. In one clip, he jests about the convenience of having two wives in order to accommodate the large crowds trying to meet Diana. In another, more poignant clip, he riffs about his luck in not only getting engaged to but marrying Diana. While the joke is met with chuckles, the real laughter comes after Diana makes a face in response; while Charles continued his speech, the awkward pause captured after the laughter speaks volumes. “He knows it’s the princess everyone wants to meet,” one media commentator says in the film. “He’s taken a backseat.”

Read More: Why Princess Diana Is So Hard to Get Right Onscreen

Princess Anne’s telling response about the birth of Prince William

While the royal family has had a reputation for being reserved, Princess Anne’s brusque responses to media inquiries about Diana giving birth to Prince William came off as particularly cold. Asked about her sister-in-law while on a trip to New Mexico, she said, “I don’t know, you tell me,” later responding to reports that Diana had a son, “I didn’t know she had one,” then following it up with a laconic, “good.” During Diana’s time as a royal, there were longtime rumors that she and Anne had a rivalry due to being the only princesses in the family during the early years of Diana’s marriage to Charles.

Diana was always under critique

Diana was undeniably always in the public eye—and her every move was up for critique. While much of the world was enamored with her beauty and persona, she was routinely criticized by the media and the public for her appearance, her public and private struggles, her parenting, and even her humanitarian work .

Some of the film’s most sobering clips show Diana after a book is published about her alleged suicide attempts, while the press is dissecting her issues with an eating disorder. In one, Diana is seen trying to shield William and Harry from the paparazzi after picking them up from school, overlaid with audio of a media commentator cruelly talking about her ability to parent them well. It’s a moment that holds extra meaning later in the film, as both boys are seen mourning their mother at her funeral, showing the true cost of a life in the public.

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Write to Cady Lang at [email protected]

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How Princess Diana Changed the Way We Think About AIDS

Prince Harry has continued the mission his mom began.

• As Princess, Diana was famous for her HIV/AIDs advocacy, raising awareness and giving patients hands-on attention in high-profile photos.
• Here's the story of how Princess Diana helped to de-stigmatize HIV and AIDS.

Throughout her time as Princess of Wales, Diana Spencer was famous for defying the expectations placed on a British royal. From her iconic fashion looks to her parenting style , Princess Diana's breaks with tradition have become her legacy following her untimely 1997 death . Diana is particularly well-remembered for her years of advocacy on behalf of people with HIV and AIDS. In a time when fear and misinformation ran rampant surrounding the transmission of an illness that was widely associated with gay men, even the simple act of shaking an ill patient's hand was a headline-making moment that helped educate the public on the fact that one couldn't catch the disease that way. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Princess Diana used her platform to bust myths about how HIV/AIDS could be contracted, and spent time with people affected by the virus around the world.

Diana's visit with AIDS patients during a 1989 trip to New York is reenacted in The Crown season 4. "In our opinion, Diana was the foremost ambassador for AIDS awareness on the planet and no one can fill her shoes in terms of the work she did," the National AIDS Trust's Gavin Hart told the BBC in the days following her fatal car accident. Here's a look at how Princess Diana helped change the way people thought about AIDS—and how her son Harry has made her mission his own.

Princess Diana's famous 1987 photo was a major AIDS education moment.

On April 9, 1987—six weeks before President Ronald Reagan would make his first public speech about the disease—London's Middlesex Hospital invited Princess Diana to open the Broderip Ward, their first dedicated ward for AIDS and HIV-related diseases.

Though AIDS had been a growing health crisis since cases were first officially reported in 1981 , until around 1987 it was barely given its due in terms of research, education, and adequate testing. That's largely because it was disproportionately affecting gay men (newspapers, especially U.K. tabloids, parroted the ugly term "the gay plague" when referring to the disease in headlines). The homophobic stigma around HIV and AIDS, and who was perceived to be the face of it, only served to let it spread unchecked.

Per Time magazine , Diana was nervous about making such a public move when others were not at the time. But she resolved to go, and to be photographed shaking the 10 patients' hands without gloves.

John O'Reilly, who was a nurse on the Middlesex Hospital AIDS ward, told the BBC in 2017 that the stigma was so severe back then that he didn't even tell people what ward he worked on. "We couldn't attract staff," he said.

"I warmed to her instantly," O'Reilly recalled of Princess Diana at the ward's opening. "She took our consultant down a peg or two, who asked 'do you know what this is?' and he was holding up an X-ray of a chest. She very politely said, 'I'm patron of the British Heart and Lung Foundation, of course I know what an X-ray is.' I thought, good on you. I like that."

Because of the public shaming surrounding the virus, even patients on the ward were hesitant to be in a photograph. Only one man, 32-year-old Ivan Cohen , consented to have his picture taken, from behind.

"This was Diana the Princess of Wales, coming in gloveless and shaking our patients' hands as well as ours," O'Reilly recalled. "That was very moving."

Princess Diana continued to raise AIDS awareness through the 1990s.

The late 1980s and 1990s found Diana supporting various AIDS charities internationally, through appearances and visits to facilities worldwide. That includes her 1989 visit to Harlem Hospital's AIDS unit during her three-day solo trip to New York City , which was seen in The Crown season 4 .

In a speech at Children and AIDS Conference in 1991, she encouraged people to give handshakes and hugs of their own to those with the virus. “Heaven knows they need it,” she said. “What’s more, you can share their homes, their workplaces, their playgrounds, and their toys.” She also addressed the fact that for many in affected populations, “AIDS is the last straw in an already heavy burden of discrimination and misfortune.”

That same year, Diana would visit AIDS hospice patients in Toronto, Canada, and in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The later trip also included a stop at a Sao Paulo hostel for abandoned children, including kids who were HIV-positive or sick with AIDS, delivering ample hugs to residents.

Prince Harry has continued his mom's commitment to the cause.

"When that April, she shook the hand of a 32-year-old man with HIV, in front of the cameras, she knew exactly what she was doing,” Prince Harry said during a 2017 speech , accepting an Attitude Legacy Award on his late mother Princess Diana's behalf. “She was using her position as Princess of Wales—the most famous woman in the world—to challenge everyone to educate themselves; to find their compassion; and to reach out to those who need help instead of pushing them away.”

With Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in 2006 Harry jointly co-founded Sentabale, a mental health charity for children and young people affected by AIDS in Lesotho Botswana, and Malawi. In 2016, he underwent two AIDS tests in front of media—the latter alongside fellow advocate Rihanna in her native Barbados—to help normalize the process of getting tested.

Prince Harry leveraged the PR moment as savvily as his mother did back in 1987: It resulted in a five-fold surge in home HIV test orders, according to awareness group the Terrence Higgins Trust via Mashable .

In a 2020 Sentabal charity dinner speech that was his first following his and Meghan Markle’s split from Buckingham Palace, Harry said , “My work and commitment for this charity, that I founded 14 years ago now, will never falter.”

For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter .

Samantha Vincenty is the former senior staff writer at Oprah Daily. 

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The Fab Princess Di Visits Harlem Hospital New York 1989 (Update)

“Are you heavy?” Diana asked a 7-year-old boy dressed in blue pajamas as she picked him up and held him close.

Diana’s visit to Harlem Hospital  and its tragic group of black children suffering from AIDS–many of whose mothers were intravenous drug users–came on the last day of her three-day visit to New York City . She left for home in the afternoon.

The Princess of Wales [/easyazon_link] arrived at the blue-and-white brick Harlem Hospital where hundreds of people waited for hours in the cold and rain for a few seconds’ view of her before she went inside.

Upstairs in the pediatrics ward, seven victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome anxiously awaited their date with the princess, who made headlines by shaking hands with patients in Britain’s first AIDS hospital ward in an effort to dispel the myth that the disease can be transmitted through casual contact.

Diana clad in a red wool suit with black velvet buttons and a white silk blouse, made her way to the pediatrics ward and was cheered by hospital staff who lined the hallway.

Diana held her finger out so a 20-month-old girl in a pink, frilly dress could grip it and look up with big brown eyes at the blonde princess, who stood there for a few moments, obviously moved, but keeping a smile on her lips.

“Do you think people are educated about this?” she asked Dr. Margaret Heagarty, director of pediatrics, who briefed Diana before her visit to the pediatrics ward.

“Our own royalty, whatever that is, being a democracy or a republic or whatever, have not done anything nearly so symbolic as these things you are doing today,” Heagarty said.

“Do you think the situation is going to get worse?” asked the princess, seated at one end of a long polished oak conference table.

“Oh, I do,” the doctor replied.

“In the next five years?” asked Diana.

“Well into the next century,” Heagarty said.

Photo credit: 1-6) Princess Di, 1989. By Sherlock Robinson.

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Everything you need to know about new Diana documentary, The Princess

By Dora Davies-Evitt

Diana, Princess of Wales at home in Kensington Palace

There has been a flurry of cinematic releases concerning the late Diana, Princess of Wales, in recent months, with the arrival of 2021’s Spencer , which saw Kristen Stewart nominated for an Oscar, season four of Netflix's The Crown plus Diana: The musical, which is now available to watch on the streaming platform, after original debuting on broadway. It appears that audiences can’t get enough of creative reimaginings and explorations into the royal’s short, but incredibly rich life. 

The latest addition to the archive of content is new HBO documentary The Princess , which opened the virtual Sundance Film Festival in May and ‘aims to explore our complicity in Diana’s tragic death’. From the BAFTA award-winning producers of Man on the Wire , Sugarman and LA 92 , comes a 104-minute film using solely archival footage. 

Diana, Princess of Wales surrounded by police and security as she arrives for a visit to Harlem Hospitals pediatric AIDS unit in Harlem, 1989

By Harriet Johnston

As the world’s most photographed woman of her time, it can be assumed that director Ed Perkins had plenty to work with during the project’s production. Entirely made up of real-time content, from pictures and news clips to audio recordings and interviews with Diana and the Prince of Wales, the retrospective rejects common documentary conventions, such as talking-head interviews and narration. 

A magazine rack display featuring Princess Diana

The trailer for The Princess depicts a chilling arrangement of camera flashes, intrusive journalists and paparazzi, displaying the excessive media hype the princess endured during her time as a member of the Royal Family. Over the imagery, quotes can be heard from various news reporters and interviewers, making statements such as, ‘the collapse of this marriage is giving the British media little else to talk about’, ‘the princess has been the best thing for the monarchy in decades - and he’s [Prince Charles] taking second place’ and ‘it's the media that’s causing the problems'.

Funeral Of Princess Diana Central London, September 1997 

Perkins told US Today Entertainment that, ‘I hope (this film) gives a more complex understanding of both Diana and the relationship we still have with the Royal Family, as mediated by the press. In many ways, some of the tensions and fault lines that still exist in that relationship can be traced back to Diana’. 

The director went on to state: ‘The day Diana died, I was 11 years old and I remember being woken up by my parents, who were really emotional about it in a way I found surprising. There was this national wave of grief and mourning I had never seen up to that point and I don't think I've ever seen since. Adults were grieving this person as if she was their own mother or daughter’.

Flowers and mourners outside Kensington Palace in the days following the funeral of Princess Diana, 1997

The film will explore the period from Diana’s 1981 engagement to Charles to the princess’s death in 1997. Princess Diana died from the injuries she sustained in a car crash in Paris, aged just 36. Following her death, the nation was flung into a period of unexpected mourning, with floral tributes to the royal reaching 30 feet from the entrance of Kensington Palace.

The Princess will be in cinemas from 30 June across the UK and Ireland. It aired on Sky on 14 August and is available to watch On Demand.

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How the Recreation of Princess Diana's Backup Wedding Dress Is Helping 'Preserve History' (Exclusive)

Elizabeth Emanuel made her mark with Princess Diana's wedding gown, and now her remaking of the spare bridal dress is set to be on show in a virtual museum

Lauren Fleishman

The remaking of Princess Diana ’s backup wedding dress is part of a desire to "preserve history" that might have been lost if Elizabeth Emanuel hadn’t recreated it — that's the view of the woman who commissioned the designer to make the gown and now has it for her museum.

Renae Plant, director and curator of the virtual Princess Diana Museum , won't say how much she paid for the recreated bridal gown, which Emanuel recently shipped to its new home in California.

"You cannot put a price tag on history,” Plant tells PEOPLE. “Preserving history is really important. It's like pieces of art."

Indeed, Emanuel — who created the  famous gown for the then- Lady Diana Spencer for her 1981 marriage to the future  King Charles — unlocked some of that history by unveiling part of the missing jigsaw in the royal wedding story by making a replica of what the spare dress for Diana.

Plant says "secrecy" was the underlying guiding principle at the time — and Emanuel wanted the alternative as a precautionary measure.

"It was there in case word got out about the first dress," Plant explains. "Part of what is special too is that it hasn't been seen in public, and now we get to preserve it and show it to the world."

Plant, whose museum "weaves through Diana’s life from her childhood to her tragic passing," is in a good position to assess where Emanuel — as well as the designer's former partner and fellow Princess Diana wedding dress creator David — fit into the royal story.

"I think they won the lotto when they got the commission," she tells PEOPLE. "It put them on the map together and that's how they became well known around the world —designing the most famous dress worn by the most famous woman in the world. And that legacy continues."

She adds, "To be part of that special day is a huge honor, and they should both be so proud. And you can never take that away from them."

Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images; Hoda Davaine-Dave Benett/Getty Images

The making of the new replica white silk gown followed another commission that Emanuel carried out for Plant: a recreation of a fuchsia gown originally created by the Emanuels for Princess Diana. She wore it at a ball in the days before her historic wedding. In fact, parts of that pink gown provided the inspiration for the back-up wedding dress.

"It was very dramatic for that time,” Plant says of the pink gown. “It would be lost in history unless Elizabeth told that through her dressmaking."

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage?  Sign up for our free Royals newsletter  to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

The virtual museum "weaves through Diana’s life from her childhood to her tragic passing" through clothing as well as capturing the "intricate parts, the letter writing and gift giving Diana used to do," Plant adds.

Last year, Plant acquired five glamorous evening gowns , identical to the ones designed by  Jacques Azagury  and worn by Diana during her latter years. The dresses are "twins" of the originals worn by the Princess and include the iconic black halterneck dress she wore to a charity gala on the night that her controversial  Panorama  interview was broadcast in 1995.

For Emanuel, 70, her newly made dress brings back memories of her special client, Diana. She recalls the excitement — and intense pressure — that mounted in the run-up to the big day on July 29, 1981.

Diana, Emanuel says, found the designers' studio to be an "oasis of peace" away from the hubbub and excitement. "[Diana] would go upstairs and chat with all the seamstresses. She loved browsing through the rails because this was a new world for her."

"I don’t think she’d been particularly into fashion before she met us," the designer adds.

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The New Princess Diana: Meghan Markle 'Channels' Late Royal While Reading to Sick Kids at Los Angeles Children's Hospital

Meghan Markle reportedly "resurrected her acting skills" to play her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales , at a children's hospital in Los Angeles on March 21. In what one critic described as the Duchess of Sussex's "best performance," the former actress read three of her favorite kid's books to gathered children, and even wore Diana's famous Cartier watch during the visit.

Meghan wore a floral-patterned Oscar de la Renta dress during the hospital tour, which many are pointing out is nearly "an exact replica" of the late princess' visit to a children's ward in Harlem in 1989. A royal insider shared how "you can clearly see in her body movements, facial expressions, and reactions to the kids that she is recreating Diana's 1989 trip to Harlem."

They added: "She was also making sure to show off that Cartier watch that the princess adored."

Diana started wearing the accessory in 1996 after her divorce from the then- Prince Charles . After her death the following year, it is believed that Prince William inherited the watch while Prince Harry chose to keep their mother's famous engagement ring. The brothers switched the two accessories in 2010 when William proposed to Kate Middleton . The Duke of Sussex gave the watch to Meghan after their marriage, and the Duchess has worn it several times in public.

Fans took to social media to praise Meghan's look, with one writing: "Love this look in general, but a fun, whimsical look for an event with kids!"

Another fan shared, "Such a lovely look. Her outfits have all been hits lately", while someone else pointed out: "I really like this dress! [heart-hands emoji]."

The Duchess of Sussex has been accused in the past of being "obsessed" with the iconic mother-in-law she never got to meet.

Harry and Meghan have both spoken openly about his mother in recent years, including the revelation that he took the California native to visit Diana's grave in 2022.

"So much of what Meghan is and how she is so similar to my mom. She has the same compassion . She has the same empathy. She has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her," the fifth in line to the throne wrote.

"Not only did Earl Charles Spencer [Diana’s only brother], Lady Sarah McCorquodale , and Baroness Jane Fellowes [Diana’s two sisters], and her close friend Julia Samuel fail to see the similarities between Meghan and Harry’s late mother— as the prince reportedly hoped — but they thought that she would struggle to fit in with the royal family," royal author Tom Bower wrote in his book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors .

The New York Post reported on Meghan's visit.

How The Crown Recreated Princess Diana's Iconic Landmines Walk

The show changed one major detail: Princess Diana walked through an active minefield in Angola, not in Bosnia.

However, this walk did not take place in Bosnia. In fact, it took place in Angola, in January 1997. The show likely combined her trip to Angola into the Bosnia trip for ease of storytelling, and to highlight the bravery of Diana's walk—which was very real.

On January 5, 1997, Princess Diana—wearing protective body armor and a clear visor—walked through a landmine field in Huambo, Angola being cleared by the HALO Trust , a nonprofit that focuses on clearing landmines.

"Diana’s visit is something that people in Huambo still talk about today," Ralph Legg, a manager at HALO Trust, told Time Magazine . "For the people that were here at that time, which was obviously still a time of conflict, it led to a feeling of acknowledgement, and that their plight was recognized around the world. The people I've spoken to who met Diana on that trip have all said how kind, considerate and how genuinely interested she seemed in them."

HALO's executive director, Chris Whatley, recalled to People , "As soon as Princess Diana made her walk, it became a front of mind issue. It took the convening power of Princess Diana to do that, to put it on the world stage to create that public momentum that, that allows for the political support, the rallying that continues to this day."

Years later, in 2019, Prince Harry would recreate this famous walk . "The attention my mother brought to this issue wasn’t universally popular; some believed she had stepped over the line into the arena of political campaigning—but for her this wasn't about politics; it was about people," Prince Harry said.

So while The Crown didn't capture exactly correctly where Princess Diana's walk through a landmine field today, they absolutely captured the spirit of her advocacy.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Princess Diana is luscious in lace in Princess Kate-style wedding dress and royal bridal tiara in unearthed photos

The late princess of wales was pictured in washington with prince charles.

Bridal white dresses and sparkling tiaras are not limited to royal weddings alone, just look at the late Princess Diana 's outing in 1985 for proof.

The Princess of Wales, who had been married to then-Prince Charles for four years, made her first visit to the United States where she attended a dinner at the British Embassy in Washington with Vice President George Bush. 

Instead of opting for a classic black evening gown, Diana stepped out in a gorgeous ivory lace dress by Murray Arbeid. The designer, who died from cancer in 2011, had previously joked that he didn't specifically venture into the bridal industry, but many items in his range could be made in white for brides-to-be. 

"There are enough pressures in life without having to put up with neurotic mothers of the bride, and there is no other kind," he told the Chicago Tribune in 1987.

Despite his comments, Diana's dress wasn't dissimilar to the lace Alexander McQueen wedding dress worn by her future daughter-in-law Princess Kate , complete with a V-neck, a Victorian-style corset, padded hips and a full skirt. Meanwhile, Diana's featured a scalloped neckline, long sleeves and a drop waist, leading to a satin skirt.

Colour experts have previously discussed the symbolism behind wearing white with HELLO!.

"Culturally speaking white is a symbol of purity, cleanliness, immaculacy and perfection, which is why it's the natural colour choice for bridal dresses, doctors' coats and seafarers," said Gabi Winters from Chromology.

Meanwhile, Colour Psychologist and Design Director Tash Bradley explained: "White means clarity of thought. To wear white, you've got to have a lot of confidence you know. You're not hiding anything – you want to show purity. If someone wears white, they're being, not minimalist, but it's very clean. It's very pure, it's very soft. It's a very brave move to put an all-white outfit on."

Diana, aged 24 at the time, wore her blonde hair curled, finished with the pearl-encrusted Lover's Knot Tiara. The late Queen Elizabeth II  inherited the tiara from her grandmother in 1953, and she reportedly loaned it to her daughter-in-law Diana for her wedding day in 1981.

While the royal bride chose to wear a family heirloom , the Spencer tiara, she was later spotted wearing the pearl tiara to post-wedding events – even though the weight reportedly gave her headaches. 

Now, it is regularly worn by Prince William's wife the Princess of Wales, who first stepped out in the headpiece in 2015. 

READ:  Meghan Markle was the ultimate rule-breaking bride in 'relaxed' wedding snap

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