Profile: From Boys to Men
10 tahun sudah berlalu sejak tewasnya Putri Diana dalam kecelakaan tragis di Paris tanggal 31 Agustus 1997 waktu setempat.
Namun dunia seakan tidak pernah melupakannya…
Berbagai spekulasi baru mengenai kematiannya terus beredar dari tahun ke tahun. Sebagian orang yang pernah mengenalnya berusaha “memanfaatkan keadaan” dengan berlomba-lomba mengeluarkan buku mengenai dia. Bahkan (bekas?) pacar Pangeran William, Kate Middleton, juga tidak bisa lepas dari bayang-bayang “Princess of Wales” yang satu ini.
Kematian Diana yang tiba-tiba memang sempat “menggoyahkan” kedudukan monarki Inggris. Saat itu, keluarga kerajaan sedang berlibur di “Balmoral Castle”, Skotlandia.Â
Terlambatnya reaksi kerajaan untuk mengeluarkan ungkapan duka cita dan tidak adanya pengibaran bendera setengah tiang di istana Buckingham sempat membuat popularitas keluarga kerajaan merosot drastis.
Pada akhirnya, demi “menuruti keinginan rakyat” (dan juga dorongan media massa), sejumlah aturan protokol dilanggar (contoh: pengibaran bendera “Union Jack” setengah tiang di atas istana Buckingham. Suatu hal yang sebenarnya tidak pernah ada di aturan protokoler kerajaan mengingat seharusnya hanya bendera “Royal Standard” saja yang boleh dikibarkan di atas istana untuk menandakan kehadiran Ratu). Popularitas keluarga kerajaan pun terdongkrak kembali…
Begitulah kilasan singkat mengenai efek kematian “Lady Di” 10 tahun yang lampau.
Lalu bagaimanakah kabar “para pelaku utama” yang terlibat langsung dalam drama nyata ini?
Ditulis oleh Gordon Rayner
Artikel dapat diakses di alamat:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/31/ndiana1531.xml
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How the key figures 10 years ago have fared
Harry
His party lifestyle has brought with it the risk that he would forever be branded a playboy, but Prince Harry has finally come of age with his moving and assured address at the memorial service for his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Harry’s eloquent tribute to “the best mother in the world” managed to be deeply personal without lapsing into the sentimental, and drew tears and applause from the crowds gathered outside the Guard’s Chapel in London.
No official explanation was given by Clarence House as to why it fell to Harry to give the address, rather than his older brother William, but on the rare occasions the Princes have spoken together in public, such as at the recent Diana memorial concert, Harry has appeared the more relaxed and assured of the two.
Prince Charles is rightly proud of the way his sons have coped with the loss of their mother. In the ten years since Diana’s death Prince Harry has demonstrated an impressive determination to be his own man, most notably in his insistence that he should be allowed to lead his soldiers in combat in Iraq.
Although the Army ultimately denied Harry the chance to go into battle, his undoubted courage won him widespread respect.
His Achilles heel, however, has been his love of boozy nights out at London nightclubs where, unsurprisingly, he invariably finds the paparazzi lying in wait, leading to at least one unseemly scuffle between the Prince and freelance photographers.
The Queen has reportedly expressed her own disquiet over Harry’s drink-fuelled exploits.
Even his choice of girlfriend has been turned against him by tabloid newspapers, who have branded South African-based Chelsy Davy a “chav” because of her preference for revealing outfits.
Harry, 22, now has a chance to put all that behind him after showing his undoubted maturity and ability to connect with the public in a speech seen by millions worldwide.
William
Aged just 15 when his mother died, he became the adopted son of almost every mother in the country as they watched him following Diana’s coffin, which bore a card with the single word “Mummyâ€.
His popularity remains undimmed, helped partly by his striking resemblance to his mother and his easy manner.
His on-off relationship with Kate Middleton has triggered the sort of media frenzy once reserved for his late mother, to his undisguised irritation.
Once he has completed his military service, William must prepare himself for his eventual role as king, a role he is widely rumoured to be reluctant to fulfil.
Charles
Charles’s approval ratings plunged following the tragedy because of his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
He was forced to consider the possibility that the public might never accept him as king.
But his marriage to Camilla in 2005 became something of a public relations triumph, helped by his sons’ statements of support and insistence that they just wanted their father to be happy.
The prince’s standing has also been improved by his championing of the environment — an issue which was once derided but is now embraced by all politicians.
Above all, he can take credit for his role as a loving father.
Camilla
Described by Diana as the “third person†in her marriage to Charles, Camilla was largely reviled following Diana’s death by a public who blamed her for ruining the princess’s royal fairytale.
In 1997, the prospect of Prince Charles marrying Camilla — let alone making her Queen — was dismissed by seasoned royal watchers.
But a PR campaign by Charles’s advisers gradually won her public acceptance.
Since marrying Charles, she has shrewdly maintained a relatively low profile but the decision to invite her to the memorial service threatened a major setback until she decided to pull out.
Earl Spencer
His powerful eulogy at his sister’s funeral, describing her as “the most hunted person of the modern age†earned him rapturous applause inside and outside Westminster Abbey.
But his chaotic personal life eroded public affection, starting with his divorce from first wife Victoria in December 1997.
She accused him of having affairs and of being a “bullyâ€.
He later married his Oxford contemporary Caroline Hutton, but she divorced him earlier this year after newspaper stories of an alleged affair with an American TV presenter.
The 43-year-old peer, who has four children from his first marriage and two from his second, was not invited to speak at yesterday’s service.
Trevor Rees-Jones
The sole survivor of the Paris car crash, who suffered horrendous injuries.
The former paratrooper, who remembers nothing about the crash, has struggled to rebuild his life, haunted by “survivor’s guilt†and moving to Shropshire to avoid the media.
In 2000 in his book The Bodyguard’s Story, he defended himself against accusations that he was partly responsible for the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed because he had not insisted they wore seatbelts.
After divorcing his wife, Sue Jones, he reverted to his birth name of Trevor Rees and has since remarried. He did not attend yesterday’s service.
The Queen
Although the Royal Family’s popularity plunged following Diana’s death because of their refusal to leave Balmoral or fly a flag at half-mast, the Queen restored public faith in the monarchy by speaking to the nation on television and bowing to Diana’s coffin as it passed.
The deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother in 2002 resulted in a huge outpouring of public sympathy.
By the time of her Golden Jubilee shortly after her mother’s death, the Queen was almost as popular as she had ever been.
Helen Mirren’s Oscar-winning performance in The Queen further cemented the public’s affection.
Mohammed Fayed
In the weeks before Diana’s death, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods was ecstatic at what he believed was his son Dodi’s impending engagement to the princess.
Since then, his life has been overtaken by his quest to prove the car crash was an Establishment conspiracy involving Prince Philip and the intelligence services.
His campaign led to Harrods losing its royal warrants.
In 2005, Mr Fayed, 74, moved to Switzerland, saying that HM Revenue and Customs had effectively forced him out. He was not invited yesterday.
His daughter, Camilla, a friend of William and Harry, represented her family.
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kok judulnya from boys to men.. kan ada cewek2 juga didalam list 10 orang itu :p
Gk terasa benar da 10 tahun… masih ingat wkt nonton beritanya itu masih SD. hahaha..
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Pertanyaan bagus!
Bebek juga bingung. Tapi berhubung judul aslinya gitu, ya apa boleh buat.
(bebek)