How Princess Diana fans are spending coronation day: ‘I’ll be chucking darts at Charles’ face’

Diana, Princess of Wales remains a hero to many in the LGBTQ+ community – on coronation day, we asked four of her keenest fans how they’ll be honouring her memory.

Harry has been in love with Diana for as long as he can remember.

“I just think Diana is actually very relatable to lots of people, which I know people will laugh at as she was obviously royalty, had masses of wealth and came from an aristocratic family,” he says.

“But at the heart of it all, she was a young mum-of-two dealing with an unfaithful husband in the public spotlight. She just wanted to be loved, which I think a lot of people can relate to.” 

Like many, Harry believes the royal family’s treatment of Diana was “abhorrent” – so he won’t exactly be jubilant at the coronation of her ex-husband, King Charles, and his second wife, the new Queen Camilla, on Saturday (6 May).

“I will be watching the coronation with friends and family (any excuse for a tea party, I suppose),” Harry says. “I will be wearing black and thinking of Diana throughout, though. I’ll also be dining from my Princess Diana tableware.”

He hopes Diana is looking down on us all, and that she knows how beloved she is.

The late princess remains an icon to many queer people more than 25 years after her death – for her powerful frankness about her life, for her warmth and style, and for her groundbreaking HIV advocacy.

Arguably, she’s as popular now as she was then, with a new generation immortalising her in memes and by copying her style.

If Harry could give Diana a message, it would be simple: “Thank you for all of the work that you did for the LGBTQ+ community. Your impact and legacy continues on to this day.” 

‘I’ll be chucking darts at pictures of Charles’

John’s life was changed forever when he heard a famous Princess Diana quote as a child.

“She said: ‘I don’t go by the rule book, I lead from the heart not the head.’

“That changed my perspective on everything. I say it to myself when I struggle with my mental health or when working and something gets a little tough for me.”

John has been invited to watch the coronation with his partner’s parents and he will take the opportunity to spend time with loved ones – but he won’t be celebrating.

“I don’t like King Charles with what he did to Princess Diana. I will be printing photos of Charles off and chucking darts at his face!” He laughs.

“Oh and his wife, what’s her name … eh.”

‘I’ll spend the day dressed as Princess Diana’

Linus has taken his love for Princess Diana a step further than most – he has created an entire stage show about her life.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story sees the princess, played by Linus, literally beamed down from heaven to share her ‘true’ story.

“I cast myself as the people’s princess and gave her the version of events as they should have happened – rather than how they actually did,” Linus says.

It should go without saying that Linus is no fan of Charles.

“I always think of the age difference – Diana was a teenager and Charles 30 [when they met].

“Though she was posh, she entered a whole new world of royalty and press and was given so little support and sympathy from her husband and the monarchy. She battled through media hounding her, bulimia, mental health issues and a failing marriage without much, if any, support from the institution that’s not only incredibly powerful, but also meant to be the ideal for us mere mortals. 

“You’d have hoped that at least the monarchy would’ve learned from it, but seeing how they treat Meghan is very disheartening. It surprises me that abolishing the monarchy isn’t more of an actual debate in this country.”

He’ll be spending coronation day doing what he does best – performing as Diana. He has two shows lined up in Manchester’s Cultplex for Saturday.

“Cultplex is a great venue and one of the people who run it, Emma, had seen the show previously and said that they wanted to do something anti-monarchy, anti-Tory for the coronation. I was most happy to oblige and think it will be very special to be surrounded by other Di-hards on the day.”

‘I’ll be wearing a replica tiara and drinking Pimms’

Mélanie, a historian specialising in royal history, has been a massive Princess Diana stan ever since her wedding day – “although as my now boyfriend was only a couple of months old at the time, I sort of feel like I should pretend not to be able to remember it”.

“I actually met her when I was 14 and almost died from the sheer awe,” she says. “I don’t actually remember much about it other than the epic amount of blue eyeliner that she was wearing. Iconic.”

Mélanie and her boyfriend will be marking coronation day in the most spectacular way they can imagine – getting in loads of snacks and putting on Mélanie’s collection of replica royal wedding tiaras that she amassed in lockdown.

They’ll also be drinking Pimms while they “relentlessly p**s take and tweet during the ceremony”.

“I feel a bit bad for the late queen [Elizabeth] – apparently she was worried about people watching her coronation with their dinners on trays on their laps, not knowing that things would be much much worse by the time Charles succeeded to the throne.”