Many celebrities have the honor to meet Princess Diana before his tragic death, and they have many great stories about the last royal.
Diana and Elton Johnwho has been a close friend of the royal family for years, met many times and finally became friends himself. The couple first met in 1981 Prince Andrewbirthday party at Windsor Castle, where John performed in the evening. Despite a brief falling out in the ’90s, the couple reconciled their friendship.
After Diana died in 1997, John sang “Candle in the Wind” at Diana’s funeral. He retitled the song “Goodbye England’s Rose” in honor of his late daughter.
“Playing at a funeral was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever done,” John recalled to VH1 in 2008. “What went through my mind was: ‘Don’t sing the wrong notes. Be stoic. Don’t screw it up and just do your best. good that you can do it without showing any emotion.’ My heart is beating so hard, I have to tell you.”
Keep scrolling to see more of the stars’ funniest stories about meeting Diana:
John Travolta
The actor met Diana when she made a royal visit to the White House in 1985. Travolta was invited to the event, which was hosted by Ronald Regan‘s administration, and got a chance to dance with Diana.
Travolta was featured in the PBS documentary In Own Words: Diana, Princess of Walessing Nancy Regan told him it was Diana’s “fantasy” to dance with him.
“My heart started racing, you know, and I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned and looked at me, and she had this blush (on her chin) that she did, and she looked at me, and I said, ‘Would you like to dance with me?'” remember. “All the rooms were cleaned. We danced for 15 minutes.
Tom Selek
The same night Diana and Travolta swayed on the dance floor, Selleck also got the chance to dance with royalty. According to his memoirs, You Never Knowat Magnum, PI The star was asked to cut between Travolta and Diana after they danced for more than one song.
“I DON’T WANT JOHN TRAVOLTA!” he replied, stating that he spoke in a “very loud voice.”
Selleck finally follows through and asks Diana to dance. According to the actor, the royal looks “shy” but still chats with friends.
“I have to say he looks like he’s having the time of his life,” she wrote. “I’m relieved he talks so often. Let’s just say it’s not the best hour to talk.”
Phil Collins
In the singer’s memoirs, Not Dead yetCollins recalls having an awkward run-in with Diana on the streets of London. Collins indicated he was “visiting a dentist in Harley Street London” and a car stopped. Diana rolled down the window to see what was going on.
According to Collins, Diana told him she “just had a colonoscopy. It’s amazing. You should try it.”
Kevin Costner
At Yellowstone actor revealed in the discussion and Diana to make a The Bodyguard continue together before he dies.
“I said, ‘I’ll do it Bodyguard 2 and I think I can build this around you. Are you curious?’” he said during his June 2024 appearance at The Howard Stern Show. “He said, ‘Yes … my life is going to change.’ I think I understand what she’s saying: ‘I want to open up my life… I think I want to do this.’”
Costner explained that he and Diana were connected through his ex-brother-in-law, Sarah Ferguson. While Costner was making the film, Diana was separated from Charles.
“The second time we talked he said, ‘Will there be a kissing scene?’ I said, ‘Would you like one?’ He said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Then we’ll do it,'” he recalled, adding that Diana would not be the main interest in the film.
After Diana’s death, the film was canceled because Costner believed there was no one to replace her.
Lionel Richie
When he and King Charles III still married, Diana attended a reception after Richie’s performance for the Prince’s Trust. At the soiree, Diana wanted to take a photo of herself with the crooner but her photographer told her not to. However, the group ended up breaking royal protocol and getting a snap.
“He said, ‘Is this your photographer here?’ and I said, ‘Yeah,'” he recalled Radio Gamelan according to Huffington Post UK. “He said, ‘Alan, take a picture!’ If I can just say, the look that Alan (Silfen) got from every man and woman in charge, like, ‘Al, you’re going to die after this knowing this’ but he was so sweet and again, one of those moments, if it wasn’t for that picture, i’d just tell the barbershop story now.
Michael J. Fox
Fox met Diana at the film’s London premiere, Back to the Futureand he got the chance to sit next to her during the screening. However, for Fox, things turned awkward when he realized he needed to use the bathroom after the movie started.
“The movie started and well, I had to pee,” he said during a November 2020 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “So, for the rest of the movie, I sat there, like, dead. I couldn’t say anything to him and I couldn’t go away from him, because I couldn’t resist him.
While Fox said she was in the middle of a “nightmare” she knew Diana loved the film, because she “laughed twice”.
Elton John
“When I arrived, there was nobody there but the dance band and Princess Diana,” the legendary singer recalled of meeting Diana for the first time with biographer Philip Norman in 2000, according to Vancouver Sun. “We danced the Charleston alone on the floor for 20 minutes.”
After taking over the dance, the deceased Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne finally join the couple. After that night, Diana and John became fast friends and they formed a close relationship with their son, Prince William and Prince Harry.
However, the couple had a rift after the release of the book Rock and Royalty with his friend Gianni Versace in 1997. However, John shared that Diana ultimately called him up to patch it up. After Versace was murdered that year, Diana gave John a shoulder to cry on.
“He kept his cool to me … he kept his cool,” the Grammy winner said later Barbara Walters. “When I started crying and he hugged me … it was like him. He was really caring and a very calm person.”