Princess Diana's grieving sisters' 'look' at King Charles goes viral

The moment Princess Diana's grieving sisters accompanied King Charles III to the hospital where the Queen lost her life in 1997 has gone viral after footage captured by the press at the time resurfaced on social media site TikTok.

The clip, recorded on August 31, 1997 at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, has resurfaced just days after the 27th anniversary of the car crash that killed Diana at the age of 36 and left behind her two sons, Prince William, aged just 15, and Prince Harry, aged 12.

Diana was pronounced dead in hospital after suffering catastrophic injuries when the car in which she was traveling at high speed through Paris with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, a bodyguard and a chauffeur collided with a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.

Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana was taken from the scene to hospital and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was freed from the wreckage before he was also taken to hospital.

Attempts to save Diana's life were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead in the early hours of the morning. Rees-Jones was the only person to survive the accident, but suffered life-changing injuries.

The accident has sparked decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. A 2008 investigation into the events surrounding the accident and several of the leading theories concluded that the princess' cause of death was “wrongful killing.” The reason given was the negligent driving of Paul, who had too much blood alcohol to drive a vehicle, as well as the negligent driving of the paparazzi who were following the car at the time. The verdict also blamed the fact that none of the car's occupants were wearing seat belts.

The footage, uploaded to TikTok on September 6 by user ladywalesdiana, shows Diana's two older sisters, Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, along with then-Prince Charles, watching as Diana's coffin left the hospital and was placed into a waiting hearse. It has been viewed over 400,000 times so far.

The clip is incorrectly captioned “Watch Princess Diana's sisters look at Charles at funeral” and shows a moment where the two grieving women look at their former brother-in-law outside the hospital.

They had travelled to Paris with Charles on board a private royal jet just hours after hearing the news of Diana's accident. In an interview with the BBC documentary in 2017 Diana, 7 daysMcCorquodale described her shock at the events.

“There was a period of about two hours where I was obviously talking to other members of my family and learning that she hadn't made it, and in those two hours the anchors on all the news channels were saying, 'Injured but expected to make a full recovery,' and I have no idea why, but that made me so angry,” she said.

“She was always very careful to wear her seatbelt – why didn't she wear it that night? I'll never know.”

About the trip to the hospital in Paris, she explained: “I didn't have time to feel anything.”

“I think I was shocked, but I don't think I felt anything else. Just love and shock,” she said. “I don't think I was capable of feeling anything else. I think I put up a barrier and these are the jobs that need to be done and I just have to do them. There was plenty of time after that to point fingers or whatever else you needed to do.”

The TikTok clip has received over 7,000 likes and over 300 comments, many of which expressed their condolences for the sisters.

“They were all in shock,” wrote one user.

“They are both devastated. They had just flown to Paris to collect their little sister's body and were completely devastated,” posted another.

James Crawford-Smith is NewsweekRoyal Reporter based in London. You can you can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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