PRINCESS DIANA’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY TO BE CELEBRATED BY SONS IN A HUGE CONCERT
By Topi Lyambila And Agencies
Kenya London News, Kenya
sh/article_1716.shtml
Nov 27 2006
Diana, Princess of Wales, is to be honored on the 10th anniversary of
her tragic death with a huge concert. Her two sons, Princes William
and Harry, who are second and third, respectively, in line to the
throne of the United Kingdom, will host the concert.
The gig will be staged at the new Wembley Stadium on July 1 next year,
which would have been Diana’s 46th birthday. It will also be held a
month before the 10th anniversary of her death in a Paris car crash
on August 31, 1997.
An insider told the Sunday Mirror: "The princes wanted to organize
something very special to mark not only the anniversary of their
mother’s death but also her birthday. This will be a spectacular day.
The boys want to show the world that their beloved mother will never
be forgotten." The event is set to be the first concert to be held
at the new £757 million stadium after it opens next May.
William and Harry are expected to host the concert for 90,000 fans,
featuring high profile performers from Britain and the United States,
among them Elton John. The royal brothers wanted it to be an "upbeat,
joyous tribute to her life and work". The concert is expected to be
shown live on television to a worldwide audience of millions with
proceeds going to charity.
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor; born
Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of The
Prince of Wales, eldest son and heir apparent of Elizabeth II.
Diana came from a royal and aristocratic background. On her
mother’s side, Diana was partially American in ancestry; one of her
great-grandmothers was the American heiress Frances Work. On her
father’s side, Diana was also a direct descendant of King Charles II
through two illegitimate sons and King James II through an illegitimate
daughter. And, according to her biographer Lady Colin Campbell, Diana’s
great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Kewark (some sources spell the
surname Kevork or Kevorkian) was a native of Bombay, India and likely
of Indian descent, though family lore identifies Kevork/Kewark as of
Armenian ancestry.
Nearing his mid-thirties, Prince Charles was under increasing
pressure to marry. Legally, the only requirement was that he could
not marry a Roman Catholic, but a member of the Church of England
was preferred. His great-uncle Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who was
assassinated in 1979, had advised him to marry a virginal young woman
who would look up to him. In order to gain the approval of his family
and their advisors, any potential bride was expected to have a royal
or aristocratic background, as well as be Protestant and, preferably,
a virgin. Diana seemed to meet all of these qualifications.
The wedding took place in St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Wednesday,
29 July 1981, before 3,500 invited guests and an estimated 1 billion
television viewers around the world. Among other performers, the
acclaimed New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa sang Handel’s "Let
the Bright Seraphim" during the wedding ceremony, at the request of
Prince Charles.
In the mid-1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an
event at first suppressed, but then sensationalized, by the world
media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the
press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage’s
demise.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992;
their divorce was finalized on 28 August 1996.
On 31 August 1997 Diana was involved in a car accident in the Pont de
l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, along with Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver
Henri Paul. Their Mercedes-Benz S280 sedan crashed on the thirteenth
pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal
barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction
could easily result in a head-on collision with the tunnel pillar.
Fayed’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was closest to the point of impact
and yet the only survivor of the crash. He was the only occupant of
the car who was wearing a seatbelt, which is not the normal practice
of bodyguards – who don’t wear seatbelts, so as to have freedom of
movement in case of an assassination attempt – and later claimed that
he had no memory of the crash. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed
instantly, and Diana – unbelted in the back seat – slid forward during
the impact and "submarined" under the seat in front of her, causing
massive internal bleeding. She was transported to the Pitie-Salpetrière
Hospital where, despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, she died at
4am. Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by
over 1 billion people worldwide.
–Boundary_(ID_9DE3pTiUWbJaXbx/taFGpA) —
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
