When Princess Diana died, 20 years ago today, the world plunged into deep grief. An estimated 1 million people gathered in the London streets for her funeral, and over 2.5 billion watched it on TV.
Among the mourning were the most famous faces in Hollywood. Some were close friends, some were mere acquaintances, some had never met her—but all, at some point in their lives, were touched by Princess Di. Here are the most memorable.
Elton John
The British pop star and Princess Diana first met in 1981, when he played at Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party and the then-19-year-old Diana sent him a thank-you note. They were close friends ever since.
When Princess Diana died, John sang a revised version of “Candle in the Wind” at her funeral. His performance was so emotional that Prince Harry later said it was “like someone firing an arrow” through his heart.
John described the whole thing as “surreal.”
“What was going through my mind was ‘Don’t sing a wrong note. Be stoic. Don’t break down and just do it to the best you can possibly do it without showing any emotion whatsoever.”
To this day, John has never sung the revised song again, and said he will only do so if Prince William and Harry ask. It’s still the best-selling chart single of all time.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
Tabloids loved when the It couple of the ’90s and Princess Diana mingled at the premiere of Far and Away in 1992. And it seems they loved each other as well: Cruise and Kidman were two of the 2,000 people who attended Princess Diana’s funeral (other celebrities included Tom Hanks, Sting, and Steven Spielberg).
Cruise also took a definitive stance against the paparazzi, who at that time were largely blamed for Princess Diana’s death. (Later reports found that in addition to the aggressive photographers, her driver was drunk.)
“They run lights and they chase you and harass you,” he said. “It happens all over the world. And it has certainly gotten worse.”
George Clooney
George Clooney never met Princess Diana, but that didn’t stop him from taking a page out of Cruise’s playbook. He delivered a fiery speech in her honor at the Screen Actors Guild office. “Princess Di is dead, and who should we see about that? The driver of the car? The paparazzi? Or the magazines and papers who purchased these pictures and make bounty hunters out of photographers?” he said, singling out The National Enquirer in particular. “If you weren’t hiding behind the profession of journalism, you would be an accomplice to a crime, and you would go to jail.”
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson first met Diana at his concert in London. But once he heard she was in the crowd, he panicked and scrapped “Dirty Diana”—a song about groupies—from his set list.
Diana, however, could not care less. The King of Pop recalled that Diana said, “Oh, no! I want you to do it. Do it, do the song.”
Her dynamic personality stuck with Jackson his entire life. Although Jackson admitted that they weren’t close, he canceled his concert due to “shock” the night Diana died, according to a statement by Sony.
A few days later, he told ABC, “I said, ‘I can’t, I cannot handle this. It’s too much.’ Just the message and the fact that I knew her personally.”
Madonna
The 1997 MTV Music Awards occurred just five days after Princess Diana’s passing. Madonna used her stage time to beg viewers to stop the vicious gossip cycle. “I am not going to stand up here and rant and rave about paparazzi, or the irresponsible behavior of the editors of all the tabloids. Because even if they never change, there’s still something that all of us can do,” she said. “It’s time for us to take responsibility for our own insatiable need to run after gossip and scandals and lies and rumors. To live vicariously through other people’s misery. And it’s time that we realize that everything we say and do has an effect on the world around us.”
The Spice Girls
Madonna wasn’t the only pop star to honor the Princess on stage that night. Beloved girl group Spice Girls dedicated their moonman (now, moonperson) to their fellow countrywoman. “She was a fantastic ambassador for Great Britain,” they said in their acceptance speech.
Victoria Beckham would go on to be a good friend to the royal family: In 2011, she and David Beckham notably attended the wedding of William and Kate, and Harper Beckham had an adorable (yet controversial) private tour of Buckingham Palace this summer.
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters was the first American broadcaster to interview Diana about her marital troubles, and in the process, the two became friends. When news broke about her death, Walters expressed her grief on the airwaves. “She could be very funny,” she said on ABC. “I once asked her why she went to the gym every day where the paparazzi were,” Walters recalled. “And she said, ‘Well, that’s ----. I can’t just stay in the apartment all day.’ And she said, ‘Besides, they know all my dramas.’ ”
Walters also called her “courageous and beautiful and very kind.”
In an interview with the BBC, Prince William admitted that, at first, the amount of mourners puzzled him: “You didn’t even know her, why and how are you so upset?” he said. But over time, he realized just how much Diana meant to everyone, from her family to the average Joe Englishman to the King of Pop. She was the people—all the people’s—princess.
