Jamie Lee Curtis is reflecting on a heartwarming encounter with Princess Diana just months before her death at age 36.
“I once almost met Princess Diana,” Curtis, 66, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, August 31. “She was to visit the set of the follow up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, and we were shooting at Pinewood deep into the forest there. When we finally took a break, I jumped in a golf cart and drove the mile back to the dressing room block to use the restroom. My driver started banging on the door, saying that she had arrived with her sons and I jumped into the golf cart and by the time I got back, she was walking away and I wasn’t going to chase her to tell her how much I admired her.”
The actress, who also shared an image of Diana with her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, explained that she then wrote a “letter” to Diana explaining her absence and confessing her admiration for the royal, which she had delivered to Kensington Palace.
She heard back from Diana the following day. “And the next day I received one back from her, thanking me for writing and understanding, of course, nature calling as it happens to her all the time and that she looked forward to meeting,” Curtis wrote. “She died two months later.”
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Curtis said she remembered “watching the news” before shutting off the TV and turning to a book about “insight meditation” on her bedside table by Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. “I picked it up and in the first pages it talked about how people who tried to live a mindful life, at the time of their death really asked themselves two questions. Did I learn to live wisely? Did I love well?” she recalled.
The questions caused Curtis to “immediately” think of Princess Diana and her former marriage to King Charles III.
“How she got out of that bulls*** sham contract of a marriage and how she talked about her own personal issues and demonstrated courage and compassion, putting her hand on the leg of the young man with HIV/AIDS and walking in the minefield,” Curtis continued. “I certainly thought that she had learned to live wisely.”
She concluded her thoughtful tribute by referencing the photo in her Instagram post of Diana with William, now 43, Harry, now 40, which saw Diana with her arms outstretched as the two boys ran toward her.
“She loved them in a way a royal person never had and she really loved the world and so she did love well,” Curtis said, “and even though that day, this day, I’m still moved by her and her grace and courage, I’m also comforted in knowing that she lived a mindful wise, loving life.”
Diana died at age 36 in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, took to social media on Sunday to honor his late sister 28 years after her tragic death.
“Flowers we cut this morning from Althorp’s gardens for the Island,” Spencer, 61, wrote via Instagram alongside a beautiful bouquet and another picture of the private island at Althorp Estate in West Northamptonshire, England, where Diana is buried. “Always an impossible day.”
During an appearance on Good Morning Britain in 2024, Charles revealed that he visits Diana’s gravesite nearly “every day.” The island where the late royal is buried is only accessible by boat with no access to the general public. (There was previously a bridge that connected the island to the nearby estate that has since been removed to protect the family.)
In his 2022 memoir, Spare, Prince Harry recalled visiting the gravesite on the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death with wife Meghan Markle. (The couple, who tied the knot in 2018, share son Prince Archie, 6, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 4.)
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“No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one … 25th anniversary,” Harry wrote. “And Meg’s first time. At long last, I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.”
Harry continued, “We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity. Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone.”
