Lady Di, 29 years on: what her life would look like in the age of performative fame

The people's princess in the algorithm: what Lady Di would be like today

What would have become of Lady Di today, at 65, with her life turned into a global reality show? The question sounds like entertainment, but it captures a change of era: the shift from the worldwide celebrity, the kind who appeared on four TV channels and in two magazines, to the fragmented stardom of social media. And along the way, it paints an uncomfortable portrait of the present: the scandal that haunted her in the 90s would probably be her greatest asset today.

The media funeral that could never happen again

It has been 29 years since a death that brought the planet to a standstill. It was one of those events where children, grandparents and everyone else talked about the same thing, the next day and for weeks on end. She was not just a young princess: she was, as has been noted, one of the most media-famous figures in the world, on a par with Michael Jackson or the stars who filled television without needing an algorithm.

An anecdote from that night sums it up: a child watching TV past bedtime laughed at seeing images of a crash mixed with archive footage of the princess, convinced it was a newsroom mistake. That sense of strangeness, that blend of fascination and bewilderment, was the hallmark of an event we still have not fully processed.

The counterfactual: activist, influencer or glossy-magazine socialite

Speculation about her hypothetical life has taken two paths. Some see her as an activist aligned with the causes of the moment, always on the front line of the culture war. Others imagine her in the celebrity gossip circuit, changing boyfriends every so often, with two or three more children from an international relationship. And then there is the cynical take: an elegant socialite in the glossy magazines, like so many who fill their pages, more style than substance.

The interesting part is the paradox: the romantic relationship that in her day was read as a scandal of historic proportions would today go almost unnoticed, or might even have given her more relevance in an ecosystem that rewards controversy. The world has changed faster than its myths.

The single Elton John dedicated to her remains the second best-selling in history, which says something about the scale of the phenomenon. But the question of what she would be like today has no answer. Perhaps because fame back then was worth more and lasted less. Today, Lady Di would be competing for attention with any content creator; or perhaps not, because there are myths that need no algorithm: they are inherited.