Ten Years On: Why Diana Mattered

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At least some in the Diana industry think it will get a boost this year from more than the anniversary of the car crash in a Paris tunnel. After years of delays, the inquest into her death is starting up in London — and the press finally will have something new to say. "The real interest now is the story of the conspiracy," says Peter Hill, editor of London newspaper the Daily Express. "There's an enormous number of people who simply do not believe that [Diana's death] was just an accident." For whatever reason — nostalgia, loyalty, morbid curiosity — readers are still drawn to Diana. "She was a gift to the media when she was alive," says former royal correspondent Nicholas Owen, whose book Diana: The People’s Princess was published June 4. "And the extraordinary thing is that even today, when a magazine or newspaper editor almost anywhere in the world is a bit worried about circulation figures, he only needs to put the Princess of Wales on the cover."

While newspapers and magazines cater to the casual princess watcher, some pilgrims want more solid mementos. Every summer they descend on Althorp, the historical home of Diana’s family, where for $25 they can walk through the rooms she played in as a child, check out the small museum that exhibits her favorite dresses and personal letters, gaze upon her grave that sits on an island in the middle of a lake — and pick up souvenirs, like a heart-shaped key ring ($12) or a bone china pillbox ($30). Diana merchandise still sells in main streets and malls in Britain and far beyond. Her likeness is etched onto stacks of commemorative coins — the Royal Mint is releasing a set costing between $80 for the smallest one and $480 for the largest — and inked onto reams of stamps (over 100 governments will be issuing Diana stamps before the end of August). And then there are the dolls. Lots of dolls. U.S. collectibles company the Franklin Mint has a catalog that reads like a Who's Who of scale-model celebrity, from Marilyn Monroe to Jackie Onassis. Lady Di — at $195 a doll — outsells them all. A private company, the Franklin Mint won't say how many of the dolls it has sold. (The U.S. firm had a long legal battle, now settled, with the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund over rights to use the princess's image.)

The value of Diana’s memory is not just that it persuades people to spend — but also that it motivates them to give. A glamorous princess holding the hand of a dying stranger, comforting a sick child — those were the moments that made Diana an international symbol of caring. For charities that work in her name, that's the kind of publicity money can’t buy. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was set up in 1997 with the donations that came flooding in after her death. Since then it has handed out $150 million in grants to more than 350 projects and organizations focusing on issues like palliative care in Africa and raising awareness of the problems facing young refugees. Other charities can spend huge amounts of time and money just trying to explain to governments and the public what it is they do. With Diana as its silent spokeswoman, the Fund needs no introduction — everyone knew Diana and the causes she stood for. "We're very small compared to foundations the size of Gates and Buffet, which are spending $3.5 billion a year," says Astrid Bonfield, the Fund's CEO. "But the fact that we have Diana, who is associated with very powerful images around issues like land mines and HIV/AIDS, gives us a voice. It opens doors and gives us a seat at the table." It also brings in money. All the proceeds from the sold-out Concert for Diana at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 1 — organized by William and Harry to celebrate what would have been their mother’s 46th birthday — are going to charities Diana supported, including the National aids Trust and the Leprosy Mission.

Don't dismiss what an association with the dead princess can do for those who want to do good. Andrew Morton is best known as the author of Diana: Her True Story, the 1992 biography that revealed — with Diana’s covert blessing — how unhappy she was in her marriage. But he also chairs Response International, which helps war victims in countries like Bosnia, Kosovo and Lebanon. In 2002, the charity received a grant from the Memorial Fund to support land-mine clearance in Pakistan. "Some of the charity workers have to go where literacy rates are low and suspicion of strangers is high," says Morton. "They carry pictures of Diana with them, and everywhere they go, she is recognized as a humanitarian. Diana is like a passport that allows our workers into these villages so they can do their jobs." The market may have put a value on every aspect of Diana’s life and death, but there are places where her image is still priceless.