Photographer Jayne Fincher was the only woman in the press pack to follow Princess Diana from her fresh-faced debut to her emergence as a dazzling solo performer. In our series celebrating Diana’s life and legacy 20 years on, the snapper shares her memories of watching the unforgettable royal grow up before her very eyes.
I'll never forget the moment I first saw her. I was taking photos at Princess Margaret's 50th birthday party when this young girl, with no makeup on and a dress that looked as if it had been borrowed from her mother, squeezed through the press pack, saying 'excuse me'. Someone said: 'I'm sure that's Lady Diana Spencer', and she went absolutely bright red. You instantly liked her because she looked so appealing and had a softness about her.
Diana Mania started as soon as she was engaged. It started to whip up before the wedding and the crowds on the wedding day were pretty amazing. It was a huge party.
My favourite outfit of Diana's was on her honeymoon photocall at Balmoral. She was really tanned, with lovely brown legs, she always had gorgeous legs. Her hair was very natural and blonde from the sun.
As she walked through the heather I don't think she'd ever looked more beautiful. Out of all the fancy outfits and all the diamonds, that was the day I remember her looking her absolute best. She looked happy and beautiful inside.
In Australia in 1983 outside the Sydney Opera House it was just a sea of people as far as the eye could see. I've never seen crowds like it. Prince Charles looked very proud, like he'd been given the best birthday present ever. She was a bit overwhelmed by it, coping with the crowds and she had a new baby. It was overwhelming for us, let alone her.
She adored children, couldn't resist them. Her own sons were the apples of her eye, her face lit up whenever she saw them. You could see the close bond. I think how much she would love to have seen William and Harry as these grown-up men with so much of her in them.
I knew every little bit of her wardrobe, every designer, every milliner, all the jewels. It was a wonderful thing to observe, spotting the changes in the clothes and drooling over some of them.
There was one particular Catherine Walker dress with beautiful embroidery work on it. The pictures never did it justice. When I went to the palace once to photograph her she had the dress on and I said to her: I've always admired it so much and I've always wanted to touch it, and she said: "Go on then". It looked stunning. But she said that sometimes sitting through the banquets in all those dresses was uncomfortable.
I didn’t want anything to be wrong (with Diana and Charles’s marriage). I was naïve. I pooh poohed it. I was very pro them. I didn’t think it could be true. I thought it was just the media pressure. I had to accept that something wasn't right when we went on tour in 1992. They both looked really wretched. You weren't sure what was going on but I know that she didn't have her sparkle. She looked upset, he looked upset, and the whole thing had an atmosphere.
When John Major made the announcement that they would separate I was absolutely flabbergasted because I wanted the fairytale to go on.
Diana came into her own with children and ill people, she was very tender. When we went to Mother Teresa’s hospice for the dying in Calcutta, it was a sad awful place, quite overwhelming. It gave you a lump in your throat but she had a knack of being able to judge the situation and how sensitive it was.
She shook the hands of people with AIDS and cuddled babies with AIDS. The patients were taken aback that she was so physical and the staff were over the moon. They couldn't achieve what she was achieving in just a few clicks of the camera. That one picture would tell a million words and that's what she was good at doing.
When she died I was very shocked. It was like a member of the family had died. I went back to photograph her funeral and it's a good thing that I had autofocus because I was crying so much.
I had spent a huge chunk of my life with Diana, looking at her, knowing her. It was an amazing story. It was the end of a chapter for us all. It’s part of history and I'm glad I did it.
To read Jayne Fincher's full interview and see more amazing pictures pick up your copy of HELLO!'s 20th anniversary souvenir edition celebrating the Queen of Hearts.