Suddenly Single, Diana Creates a Career

She becomes a philanthropic force as she uses fame to help the vulnerable

by Lois Joy Johnson, AARP, August 17, 2017

This is the eighth installment in a series of photos and videos remembering Princess Diana as we approach the 20th anniversary of her shocking death, on Aug. 31, 1997. Please share your thoughts and memories of Diana in our Icons community forum.

After her separation from Prince Charles, Diana made a career of her charitable work. While her fans still ate up every detail about her newly single life, she became a true philanthropic force and made a mission of helping the vulnerable and the poor. One of her nicknames was the “Queen of People’s Hearts.” The princess, still a superstar, could draw attention to causes that required real change and public support. She challenged the perception of AIDS and HIV transmission by touching those with the disease during her bedside visits to hospital patients. She hugged children with cancer. She advocated for a worldwide ban on land mines by visiting danger zones and walking through a minefield. As she said in her 1995 interview with BBC journalist Martin Bashir: “I do things differently because I don’t go by a rule book. Because I lead from the heart, not the head.”

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Photos

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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Providing Light to Others

After her marriage fell apart, Princess Diana devoted more time to her charitable causes — focusing on the vulnerable, the disadvantaged and the forgotten. In April 1991, she visited a hostel in São Paulo for abandoned children who were HIV positive or had AIDS. Diana was one of the first high-profile people who openly embraced AIDS victims in an attempt to destigmatize the disease.
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Offering Hands-On Help

In November 1989, before her separation, Diana grasped the hand — without wearing gloves — of a leprosy patient at the Sitanala Leprosy Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, to send a clear message to the world. “Every one of us needs to show how much we care for each other, and, in the process, care for ourselves,” she once remarked.
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PHOTO BY: Jayne Fincher/Getty Images

Passionate Princess

Princess Diana threw herself into her causes, especially the Red Cross. In July 1993, at the Nemazura feeding center in Zimbabwe, she dished up food for refugees.
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PHOTO BY: Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

Widely Embraced

While on a mission for the Red Cross in March 1993, Diana warmly greeted townspeople in a remote village in Nepal.
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Up Close and Personal

Diana was a patron of Tushinskaya Children's Hospital in Moscow. During a 1995 visit, she met with nurses. “Everyone needs to be valued,” Diana once explained. “Everyone has the potential to give something back.”
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PHOTO BY: AFP/Getty Images

Fundraising Events

The Princess of Wales championed many causes, especially childhood cancer. In February 1996, she joined journalist Jemima Khan for a tour and fundraising event at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Pakistan.
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

The Cause Comes First

To raise awareness of the danger of land mines, Diana donned body armor and walked through an active minefield being cleared by the Halo Trust in Huambo, Angola, in January 1997.
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

A Healing Touch

Wherever Diana went, cameras followed. While with 13-year-old Sandra Thijika at Neves Bendinha, a prosthesis clinic in Luanda, Angola, she focused the attention back to the cause: land mines. “I have all this media interest, so let’s take it somewhere where they can be positive and embrace a situation which is distressing like this,” she said.
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PHOTO BY: Tim Rook/RexFeatures/Getty Images

Keeping the Peace

At the end of a visit to Bosnia in August 1997, Diana met with French soldiers who were part of NATO’s peacekeeping forces at the Sarajevo airport.
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PHOTO BY: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

Mother Teresa and Diana

Diana developed a close bond with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In June 1997, the friends walked hand in hand through the Bronx, N.Y. After Diana’s death, Mother Teresa explained her relationship with the princess in a condolence note: “She was very concerned for the poor. She was very anxious to do something for them, and it was beautiful.”
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PHOTO BY: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Children First

Diana broke royal protocol and always met her youngest followers at eye level. At the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir temple in Neasden, London, she embraced a student in June 1997. “Hugs can do a great amount of good — especially for children,” she once said.
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