Diana was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be seen publicly touching AIDS patients, and this led to changing how the world perceived the disease.
She also brought that same dedication to her work campaigning against landmines with the HALO Trust, which saw her meet with children who were landmine survivors.
“If I’m going to talk on behalf of any cause, I want to go see the problem for myself and learn about it,” she once said.
When it came to her personal life, Diana always held out hope for her happily ever after.
She continued a relationship with James Hewitt following her split from Charles, until he was posted overseas as a Gulf War tank commander in 1991.
After her separation in 1992, the princess is said to have become close to now-deceased art dealer Oliver Hoare.
The relationship rapidly blossomed into a full-scale obsession on her part.
Two years later, when Oliver complained to police about 300 silent nuisance calls made to his home and business, Diana was immediately implicated by the British press.
The extent of the relationship remains unclear.
But, when she locked eyes with surgeon Hasnat Khan in a London hospital lift, Diana knew that the fiercely private doctor was destined to be the love of her life.
“I think I’ve met my Mr Wonderful,” she told friends soon after their brief encounter on September 1, 1995.
It was the start of an intense two-year love affair that saw Diana dream of moving to Hasnat’s native Pakistan where they could “change the world together”.
She loved his dedication and discretion, and hoped to one day have a daughter with him.
He adored her kindness but loathed her celebrity, and eventually it became clear that their vision of a shared life was just a mirage.
The couple drifted apart and said their goodbyes in the UK summer of 1997, when Diana started dating Dodi Fayed.
Doomed to be the last of Diana’s lovers, flashy playboy Dodi could not have been more different to Hasnat.
Friends warned Diana not to get involved with the son of the controversial Egyptian–born tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed – owner of her favourite store, Harrods – but she was deaf to the pleas.
In the wake of her split from Hasnat, an invitation to holiday with her sons at Mohamed’s villa in the South of France must have been most welcome.
On July 14, 1997, she told the photographers who tailed her to Saint-Tropez: “You are going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do.”
But nobody expected her to fall for Mohamed’s film-producer son Dodi, who was called in to help entertain William and Harry.
Leaving his fiancée Kelly Fisher, a Calvin Klein model behind in Paris, Dodi was pictured frolicking in the Mediterranean with Diana.
WATCH BELOW: Princess Diana makes speech about family life. Post continues after video...
Soon after, they spent the weekend in Paris together, followed by another cruise on board Mohamed’s luxury yacht, Jonikal, in Sardinia.
In August the lovers took their last fateful trip to Paris.
Tragically, it was to end in the infamous high-speed car chase and fatal crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Dodi died at the scene and a severely injured Diana was rushed to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.
After operating for two hours, doctors struggled to save her life, and she was pronounced dead on the morning of August 31, 1997.
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