diana new york trip 1989

A Look Back at Princess Diana's Famous 1989 New York Trip

The visit plays a role in The Crown 's fourth season.

February 1, 1989

After her arrival on the Concorde jet, Princess Diana attended a cocktail party for Dawson International, a British clothing company. The event was held at The Equitable Center, and the Princess wore a violet and black outfit by Catherine Walker, one of her favorite designers.

The Princess flashed a wide grin upon her arrival.

February 2, 1989

The next day, Diana visited the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side. The nonprofit organization provides social services, education, and healthcare to some of New York's underserved residents.

The Princess wore a pink and black Catherine Walker suit, paired with pearl earrings, and her trademark blue eyeliner.

At Henry Street, the Princess was joined by Matilda Cuomo, the former First Lady of New York and mother to Andrew and Chris Cuomo. The pair played with some of the children at the Lower East Side center.

Later that day, Diana had some fun at iconic FAO Schwarz toy store. Here, she was photographed, fittingly, in the store's British-themed section.

That night, Diana had her own pseudo-Cinderella moment in a white, embellished Victor Edestein gown with a matching bolero. The Princess attended a gala dinner at World Financial Center's Winter Garden.

The gala benefited the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and, reportedly cost $1,000 per ticket. According to The New York Times , the upper echelons of New York society came out in full force for the event, including individuals with the last names of Astor, Rockefeller, and Kissinger. Then-Mayor Edward I. Koch spoke and, yes, Donald Trump attended with his then-wife, Ivana.

February 3, 1989

The next day, Diana visited the AIDS unit of Harlem Hospital. The Princess was so moved seeing the patients, that she unexpectedly picked up and hugged a 7-year-old patient. Diana was passionate about ending the stigma surrounding AIDS, especially the misconception at the time that it could be transmitted through casual contact.

The Princess wore a red Catherine Walker skirt suit paired with a white, collarless button-up shirt.

Diana left New York that evening on the Concorde, concluding her quick, solo visit.

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} Royal Family News @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

Jack Schlossberg Comments on Charles's Portrait

Meghan Channeled Princess Diana's Off-Duty Style

Queen Camilla Says She'd "Love to Go to Hogwarts"

Unseen Picture Released of Elizabeth & Margaret

Royal-Favorite Label ME+EM Opens Its Doors in Soho

California Gov. Praises Harry & Meghan's Nonprofit

Archewell Foundation Issue Resolved

King Charles Unveils Official Portrait

Frederik and Mary of Denmark's 20th Anniversary

Royal Warrant Review 2024: Winners and Losers

Meghan Markle's Signature Shoe Wardrobe

Recommended

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Insiders share how Princess Diana’s 1989 New York trip really went

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Martha Grate will never forget her patients on the pediatric AIDS unit at Harlem Hospital, but one in particular still stands out.

Seven years old and a noted troublemaker, he immediately caught Princess Diana’s eye when the royal entered the ward on Feb. 3, 1989.

Diana made a beeline for the boy, asking, “Are you heavy?” before picking him up to cuddle him. The nurses braced themselves.

“He was a very precocious child,” Grate, the unit’s former nursing director, told The Post. “He was really kind of challenging and when Princess Diana picked him up, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope you don’t act out!’ We were all holding our breath, but he put his head on her shoulder. He hung on to her.”

Diana, 27, was on her first solo tour of New York City , attending ­galas as well visiting with the underprivileged. As the new season of “The Crown” on Netflix tells it, the trip was an escape from her marriage to Prince Charles — and the infidelities being committed by both of them.

But the only thing she was focused on that day was meeting the children. Sadly, said Grate, now 82 and a minister in East Stroudsburg, Pa.: “Most of the kids that were there at that time, they’re no longer with us. By the time they got on that floor, the prognosis was so bad for them.”

As people who were at the hospital that day reveal for the first time, the visit was far more meaningful than “The Crown” can ever convey.

“These children were so very, very ill, and, at the time, not much was known about how to assist them. It was just really heartbreaking. There was so much misinformation about AIDS that people believed: You couldn’t touch a doorknob or sit on a toilet or you would get it,” said Gwen Elliot-McIntosh, who was an administrator at Harlem Hospital and ran a program for women, infants and children. “People thought you had to shun people who had AIDS. It was a very bad time.”

Grate agreed: “People were so afraid to go into the children’s room. We had to encourage the housekeepers to go in there.”

Diana, however, “picked up a baby and looked at the baby like there was no one else in the room . . . She talked to [the children] and hugged them. She gave them love,” said McIntosh, now 72.

Advertisement

The royal had started her fight against AIDS stigma in 1987 when she declined to wear gloves while shaking the hands of ill patients at Middlesex Hospital in London.

“Basically, it was as if she was saying, ‘If I can love these little children . . . it’s OK — you can, too,” recalled McIntosh, who retired in 2002.During the trip, Diana was joined by her chief of staff Patrick Jephson, as well as a press secretary and a ­lady-in-waiting.

They checked into the Hôtel Plaza Athénée on the Upper East Side, where the duplex penthouse became her suite of choice when she was in town.

Jephson recalled in his book “Shadows of a Princess” how Diana’s team was worried about her meeting the hospital’s pediatrics director, Dr. Margaret Heagerty — “an avowed and outspoken critic of British policy in Ulster . . . Headlines swam before my eyes: ‘Princess snubbed by Republican Granny’ or ‘Republican Doc wrecks tour.’ ”

But all went fine, with Diana quizzing the doctor on the issues of drugs and AIDS. As Jephson writes, the doctor replied: “[Drug users] are irresponsible . . . but we have seen women on drugs with AIDS sit by their dying children and mourn . . . They love their children as you love your little princes .”

Although Diana never returned before her 1997 death in a Paris car accident, her visit still looms large. “I met Barbara Bush, Maria Cuomo,” said Grate. “Diana is the only one who exuded so much compassion.”

Lulu King, now 89, was Harlem Hospital’s recreation director. “I looked into [Diana’s] eyes and she became a glass figurine. She was so still and so beautiful. I told my sister and my father, ‘I don’t think she’s going to live long,’ ” she told The Post. “I don’t know why, I just had that feeling.”

Share this article:

Diana’s 1989 Trip To New York Was Met with Protests—But She Charmed the Whole City

As depicted in 'The Crown', princess's solo trip across the pond came as her marriage to Prince Charles was crumbling.

As ever, the show sticks close to the truth in some respects, while taking dramatic license with others, including the timeline of Diana's famous encounter with an AIDS patient. Here's your guide to Diana's real 1989 trip to NYC.

The trip fueled rumors about Charles and Diana's marital trouble.

Diana arrived in New York on February 1, 1989, touching down at John F. Kennedy airport via the now-discontinued Concorde jet. It wasn't her first solo royal engagement overseas—that was way back in 1982, when she represented the queen at Grace of Monaco's funeral. But this was Diana's first official visit to New York, and the fact that Charles did not accompany her raised eyebrows. Per ABC , the Prince's absence fueled rumors about the state of the couple's marriage. Nonetheless, Diana's "dazzling smile and personality…won over New Yorkers."

Her three-day trip involved a visit to the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side, where The New York Times reported she was greeted by hundreds of people lining the sidewalk. "The Princess smiled, shook a few outstretched hands and accepted a bouquet of flowers from a young boy," the paper wrote.

Diana also visited the Brooklyn Academy of Music as the special guest for its 1989 Royal Gala, which featured a performance of Verdi’s Falstaff by the Welsh National Opera. Diana was patron of the WNO at the time.

Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, recounted her experience with Diana in an essay for People : " I can tell you that the rollout of a royal visit is meticulous," Hopkins wrote. "She is not just a person but an industry, and every moment is designed to maximize the fantasy, beauty and mystery of royalty—and our Diana was the quintessential princess. She was tall, young, graceful, beautiful and a real professional."

The audience was packed with "everyone in New York," Hopkins recalled (the subtext being: everyone who's anyone .) That included celebrities, politicians, and, uh... Donald Trump and his then-wife, Ivana. "The security team was massive—NYPD, Scotland Yard, Her Majesty’s own private force and the FBI. These guys don't fool around."

The reactions to Diana in New York weren't entirely positive.

Throughout the performance at BAM, The New York Times reported, "several hundred protesters opposed to British rule in Northern Ireland demonstrated across the street…many of the demonstrators played bagpipes while others chanted 'Princess Di go home.'"

Diana's trip was “under immense scrutiny from the American press,” according to journalist Anita Rani, who speaks about Diana’s trip to New York for a Netflix behind-the-scenes video. The New York Post had dubbed Diana “the most famous welfare mother in the world,” prior to her arrival, and other publications criticized her high-fashion shopping habits. In fact, her small entourage on this trip didn't even include a hairdresser, so Diana did all of her own styling during the trip using heated rollers.

Diana's groundbreaking visit to AIDS patients in Harlem really happened.

Just as the show depicts, Diana visited the pediatric AIDS unit at Harlem Hospital during her time in New York. HIV and AIDS had been an important cause for her for many years; two years earlier, she opened the U.K.'s first HIV/Aids unit at London's Middlesex Hospital. At the time, she made headlines by shaking hands with a man who had AIDS , at a time when stigma and ignorance still led many to fear physical contact with patients.

During her visit to Harlem hospital, The New York Times reported, Diana "paused to stroke five babies...[then] the Princess noticed a 7-year-old boy in blue pajamas. ''Are you heavy?'' she asked, scooping him up and cuddling him." A very similar moment is depicted in the show, where Diana hugs and comforts a young boy on the ward. Both onscreen and in real life, this was a significant moment for the HIV/AIDS movement. As Dr. Margaret Heagarty, pediatric director at Harlem Hospital, told Diana at the time: "Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for."

The Very New Life of Meg Bellamy

How Did William and Kate Actually Meet?

When Do New Episodes of 'The Crown' Come Out?

Did Prince William Run Away After Diana’s Death?

Royal Outfits That Were Recreated on 'The Crown'

Elizabeth Debicki on Filming Princess Diana Scenes

Inside Princess Diana’s and Dodi’s Vacation

Did Dodi Propose to Diana? 'The Crown' Thinks So.

A Timeline of Dodi and Diana's Romance

Who Was Dodi Fayed's Ex-Girlfriend, Kelly Fisher?

Who Is the Real Mohamed Al-Fayed?

Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous New York City visit featured on 'The Crown'

• In February 1989, Princess Diana flew to New York City for her first solo overseas tour amid personal turmoil.
• Over the course of three days, Diana met with New York's rich and famous as well as its less privileged, cementing her reputation as a compassionate and modern royal.
• Highlights from Diana's trip included a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program, and the moment when she hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient at the Harlem Hospital.
• The trip has come back into focus as one of the key storylines in season four of Netflix's " The Crown ."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the fourth season of Netflix's "The Crown."

In 1989, 27-year-old Princess Diana found herself caught between two worlds: public adoration and private conflict.  

After seven years of marriage, her relationship with Prince Charles was on the rocks. Both had entered into extramarital affairs: Prince Charles with Camilla , and Diana with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt . 

Diana "was the love object of everyone in the world except her husband [...] she was faced in her mid-twenties with something she found chilling to contemplate: a fairy-tale marriage that had cooled into an arrangement," Vanity Fair's Georgina Howell wrote in 1988 . 

This moment in time is a central focus of season four of Netflix's " The Crown. " Released on November 15, the hit series' newest season depicts the lives of the British monarchy from 1979 through 1990. 

Episode 10, "War," shows how Diana, played by actress Emma Corrin, used a 3-day solo tour to New York City in March 1989 to establish her independence and promote causes she was passionate about amid turmoil at home. 

Here's how the real-life tour happened and a look back in photos.

On February 1, 1989, a 27-year-old Princess Diana touched down in John F. Kennedy Airport for her first royal overseas solo tour and first visit to New York City.

Source: Beneath the Crown

The official purpose of the three-day tour was to "promote British industries abroad," Netflix's Anita Rani explains in an episode of "Beneath the Crown."

Privately, Diana sought to take control of her narrative as conflict brewed between her and the royal family over her tumultuous marriage with Prince Charles.

After landing in JFK, Diana headed straight to a cocktail party hosted by Dawson International, producers of Scottish cashmere, where she mingled with high-profile fashion designers.

Before her visit, American media predicted that Diana, a fashion icon, would spend much of her time shopping in New York's high-end stores, but Diana's itinerary proved them wrong.

The next morning, she paid a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program in Alphabet City.

Diana's visit to Alphabet City marked a departure from previous royal visits to New York. "Diana chose to visit deprived areas of Manhattan usually ignored by the rich and famous," Rani said. "The locals were delighted."

Later in the day, she visited FAO Schwarz, New York's oldest toy store, to see an exhibition of British toys.

That evening, Diana attended the banner event of her tour: a gala hosted at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that included a performance of the Welsh opera "Falstaff" followed by a reception at the Winter Garden in Manhattan.

Diana wore an ivory-and-gold beaded gown by Victor Edelstein, which caught the attention of New York's high society in attendance, according to Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, who hosted Diana at the gala.

Source: People

"Since it was New York, everyone was wearing black [...] So when Diana entered the box, radiant in a magnificent long white dress with a matching bolero jacket covered in jewels, a gasp went up from the crowd," Brooks Hopkins told People magazine.

On her final day in the Big Apple, Diana paid a visit to the Harlem Hospital, where she spoke with doctors and visited the AIDS unit. At one point, Diana, picked up and hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient, generating a flurry of positive press attention.

Source: Beneath the Crown , Los Angeles Times

"Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for," Margaret Heagarty, Director of Pediatrics at Harlem Hospital told Diana, per The New York Times.

Source: The New York Times

Though Diana's New York tour was a short trip, it is acknowledged as a defining moment of her royal career.

In place of "frivolous coverage on shopping sprees and dazzling dresses ... what emerged were headlines about Diana's public displays of compassion for those far less fortunate than the royal family," Rani said.

• Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous Australia tour featured on 'The Crown'
• 16 things you probably didn't know about Princess Diana
• 'The Crown' showed Princess Diana roller skating in Buckingham Palace, and the show's producer says it actually happened
• Buckingham Palace has a secret theater for staff movie nights, but they're reportedly not allowed to watch 'The Crown'

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

Our Royal Insider Facebook group is the best place for up-to-date news and announcements about the British royal family, direct from Insider's royal reporters. Join here.

• Main content

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

New York Has a Cameo in ‘The Crown.’ Here’s What Really Happened.

Princess Diana visited the city in 1989, a trip featured on the Netflix series and remembered fondly by the people she met.

By Andy Newman

Long shot of the Concorde landing at Kennedy International Airport. Princess Diana gets out of the plane to cheering throngs and heads to a glittering black-tie reception.

Theather Huggins remembers what she was doing that same winter night in 1989. Working at a homeless shelter and just a few months out of homelessness herself, she came back to her apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and picked through her meager closet in search of something to wear.

“I told my kids, ‘I’m going to meet a princess tomorrow,’ and my 9-year-old said, ‘A real live princess, Mommy?’” Ms. Huggins recalled earlier this month. “‘A real live princess,’ I said. ‘I don’t know if I’m supposed to curtsy or bow.’” She chose a royal blue dress, put her hair in curls and practiced drawing the dress out to the side and dipping her knee.

Season 4 of “ The Crown ,” the British royal-family historical drama on Netflix that has viewers glued to their couches, features a three-minute cameo from New York City, cast as a crumbling colossus ravaged by crack, AIDS and homelessness. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

In the season finale, Diana’s February 1989 visit to New York functions mostly as a backdrop for her psychodrama and her unraveling marriage. The princess, played by Emma Corrin, views the solo trip as a test of independence. Her increasingly estranged husband, Prince Charles, portrayed by Josh O’Connor, calls it “an ugly, avaricious piece of self-advancement.”

The official occasion of Diana’s trip was a benefit gala at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the Welsh National Opera, which was performing there. But the princess, who had worked back home to raise awareness of AIDS and domestic violence, also wanted to see firsthand how social problems were being addressed here.

Her visits to a shelter and the city’s first neonatal AIDS ward could have come off as tone-deaf — the cloistered royal crossing the pond to gaze down upon the poor.

But for the New Yorkers into whose lives the princess landed, fairy-tale-like, the visit remains an indelible memory, real yet unreal, of a moment of connection.

The princess’s limo cruises down gritty streets and lets her out at a shelter where she meets a young mother, Linda Correa.

The shelter, the Urban Family Center on the Lower East Side, run by the Henry Street Settlement, was believed to be the first in New York to offer homeless families furnished apartments rather than rooms in squalid “welfare hotels” overseen by the city.

Linda Correa died in 1993, but her daughter, Lameca, and son Raamel remembered bomb-sniffing dogs and bodyguards casing their apartment before the princess’s visit.

“ My mother was in a competition — cleanest house in the shelter,” recalled Lameca Correa, who was 9 then and now works at a group home in Brooklyn. “She won, and that’s how we were chosen.”

“I had on a blue suit,” said Raamel Correa, who was 7 at the time and now lives in Newark and works at a car dealership. “And a tie if I’m not mistaken.”

His sister said she recognized the princess from TV. “I told her how much I loved her, and she told me she loved me, too.”

At the shelter, Diana met with survivors of domestic violence and with workers who helped residents transition to permanent housing, then toured a day-care center. Verona Middleton-Jeter, who ran the shelter, was struck by how many questions she asked and how focused she was on the answers.

Meeting the princess was “the most exciting thing I think I have ever encountered,” said Ms. Huggins, who is 65 and still works at the Urban Family Center.

“When she reached her hand out for us to shake her hand and I shook her hand, my legs just got weak,” she said.

The limo whisks the princess off to Harlem Hospital, where the director of the pediatric AIDS unit, Margaret Heagarty, tells her the children there cannot find placements in foster homes because of the stigma around the disease.

Diana approaches a young boy in a bed, bends and embraces him.

“She did it spontaneously,” Dr. Heagarty, now retired, recalled recently. “But she also did the human thing. He was 5 or 6 years old, and she just picked him up and hugged him.”

Gwen Elliott-McIntosh was the administrator of the pediatric unit at the hospital. “She was trying to put a human face on this horrible condition we were in,” she said. A photo from that day shows Ms. Elliott-McIntosh presenting the princess with a poster made by her daughter’s third-grade class. “Welcome Princess Diana,” it says next to a butterfly that Ms. Elliott-McIntosh’s daughter had drawn.

The princess returns home to find nothing changed. She hopes the prince will congratulate her for a successful trip. “You think we couldn’t do that too?” he sneers. “Theatrically hug the wretched and the dispossessed and cover ourselves in glory all over the front pages?”

But in New York, the visit resonated.

“From a policy level it was spectacularly good,” said Nancy Wackstein, who worked at the time for Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins as a policy adviser on homelessness and who helped set up the trip to the Urban Family Center. “Many of us were pushing for development of more residences like this to address the homelessness problem,” and the princess’s visit drew positive attention to the effort, she said.

Ms. Elliott-McIntosh’s daughter, the third-grader who drew the butterfly on the poster, grew up to be Eboné M. Carrington, Harlem Hospital’s chief executive. Ms. Carrington recalled that she found the princess’s simple gesture toward the boy in the AIDS ward inspiring, especially when ignorance about the disease was so widespread among people of all races and ethnicities and people with it were treated so badly.

“Just to be frank,” she said, “this white woman wanted to hold these Black babies that certain Black people wouldn’t hold — it was something that taught me about being a human, and being kind and caring about other people.”

Some of the people who met the princess have seen the show. Ms. Middleton-Jeter of Henry Street Settlement was surprised by how little it matched her memory of the day.

“It didn’t even look like New York,” she said. “When they showed the people on the street, I thought, ‘Ooh, where are these people from?’ I didn’t get a real Lower East Side feel for it.”

There’s a reason for that. The scenes were filmed in Manchester in the north of England. The cast and crew of “The Crown” never set foot in New York.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a woman who met Princess Diana, based on incorrect information provided by her former employer, Harlem Hospital Center. She is Gwen Elliott-McIntosh, not Gwen Elliot-McIntosh.

How we handle corrections

Andy Newman writes about social services and poverty in New York City and its environs. He has covered the New York metropolitan area for The Times for 25 years and written nearly 4,000 stories and blog posts. More about Andy Newman

• Insider Reviews
• Tech Buying Guides
• Personal Finance
• Insider Explainers
• Sustainability
• United States
• International
• Deutschland & Österreich
• South Africa

• Home ›
• Life ›
• news »

Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous New York City visit featured on 'The Crown'

Emma Corrin plays Princess Diana in season four of "The Crown"; Princess Diana attends a gala during her first official visit to New York City.Des Willie/Netflix; Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

• In February 1989, Princess Diana flew to New York City for her first solo overseas tour amid personal turmoil.
• Over the course of three days, Diana met with New York's rich and famous as well as its less privileged, cementing her reputation as a compassionate and modern royal.
• Highlights from Diana's trip included a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program, and the moment when she hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient at the Harlem Hospital.
• The trip has come back into focus as one of the key storylines in season four of Netflix's " The Crown ."

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the fourth season of Netflix's "The Crown."

In 1989, 27-year-old Princess Diana found herself caught between two worlds: public adoration and private conflict.

After seven years of marriage, her relationship with Prince Charles was on the rocks. Both had entered into extramarital affairs: Prince Charles with Camilla , and Diana with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt .

Diana "was the love object of everyone in the world except her husband [...] she was faced in her mid-twenties with something she found chilling to contemplate: a fairy-tale marriage that had cooled into an arrangement," Vanity Fair's Georgina Howell wrote in 1988 .

This moment in time is a central focus of season four of Netflix's " The Crown. " Released on November 15, the hit series' newest season depicts the lives of the British monarchy from 1979 through 1990.

Episode 10, "War," shows how Diana, played by actress Emma Corrin, used a 3-day solo tour to New York City in March 1989 to establish her independence and promote causes she was passionate about amid turmoil at home.

Here's how the real-life tour happened and a look back in photos.

On February 1, 1989, a 27-year-old Princess Diana touched down in John F. Kennedy Airport for her first royal overseas solo tour and first visit to New York City.

Source: Beneath the Crown

The official purpose of the three-day tour was to "promote British industries abroad," Netflix's Anita Rani explains in an episode of "Beneath the Crown."

Privately, Diana sought to take control of her narrative as conflict brewed between her and the royal family over her tumultuous marriage with Prince Charles.

After landing in JFK, Diana headed straight to a cocktail party hosted by Dawson International, producers of Scottish cashmere, where she mingled with high-profile fashion designers.

Before her visit, American media predicted that Diana, a fashion icon, would spend much of her time shopping in New York's high-end stores, but Diana's itinerary proved them wrong.

The next morning, she paid a visit to the Henry Street Settlement, a social services program in Alphabet City.

Diana's visit to Alphabet City marked a departure from previous royal visits to New York. "Diana chose to visit deprived areas of Manhattan usually ignored by the rich and famous," Rani said. "The locals were delighted."

Later in the day, she visited FAO Schwarz, New York's oldest toy store, to see an exhibition of British toys.

That evening, Diana attended the banner event of her tour: a gala hosted at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that included a performance of the Welsh opera "Falstaff" followed by a reception at the Winter Garden in Manhattan.

Diana wore an ivory-and-gold beaded gown by Victor Edelstein, which caught the attention of New York's high society in attendance, according to Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, who hosted Diana at the gala.

Source: People

"Since it was New York, everyone was wearing black [...] So when Diana entered the box, radiant in a magnificent long white dress with a matching bolero jacket covered in jewels, a gasp went up from the crowd," Brooks Hopkins told People magazine.

On her final day in the Big Apple, Diana paid a visit to the Harlem Hospital, where she spoke with doctors and visited the AIDS unit. At one point, Diana, picked up and hugged a 7-year-old AIDS patient, generating a flurry of positive press attention.

Source: Beneath the Crown , Los Angeles Times

"Your presence here and in Great Britain has shown that folks with this disease can be hugged, can be cared for," Margaret Heagarty, Director of Pediatrics at Harlem Hospital told Diana, per The New York Times.

Source: The New York Times

Though Diana's New York tour was a short trip, it is acknowledged as a defining moment of her career.

In place of "frivolous coverage on shopping sprees and dazzling dresses ... what emerged were headlines about Diana's public displays of compassion for those far less fortunate than the royal family," Rani said.

• Photos show the true story behind Princess Diana's famous Australia tour featured on 'The Crown'
• 16 things you probably didn't know about Princess Diana
• 'The Crown' showed Princess Diana roller skating in Buckingham Palace, and the show's producer says it actually happened
• Buckingham Palace has a secret theater for staff movie nights, but they're reportedly not allowed to watch 'The Crown'

• Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
• JNK India IPO allotment date
• JioCinema New Plans
• Realme Narzo 70 Launched
• Apple Let Loose event
• Elon Musk Apology
• RIL cash flows
• Charlie Munger
• Feedbank IPO allotment
• Tata IPO allotment
• Most generous retirement plans
• Broadcom lays off
• Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
• Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
• Nestle Sept 2023 report
• India Equity Market
• Best printers for Home
• Best Mixer Grinder
• Best wired Earphones
• Best 43 Inch TV in India
• Best Wi Fi Routers
• Best Vacuum Cleaner
• Best Home Theatre in India
• Smart Watch under 5000
• Best Laptops for Education
• Best Laptop for Students

• Advertising
• Write for Us
• Privacy Policy
• Policy News
• Personal Finance News
• Mobile News
• Business News
• Ecommerce News
• Startups News
• Stock Market News
• Finance News
• Entertainment News
• Economy News
• Careers News
• International News
• Politics News
• Education News
• Advertising News
• Health News
• Science News
• Retail News
• Sports News
• Personalities News
• Corporates News
• Environment News
• Richest people in India 2024
• Google I/O 2024 highlights
• Top 10 Richest people
• Top 10 Largest Economies
• Deleted Whatsapp Messages
• How to restore deleted messages
• 10 types of Drinks
• Instagram Sad Face Filter
• Recover Whatsapp Messages
• Check Balance in SBI
• How to check Vodafone Balance
• Transfer Whatsapp Message
• Dual Whatsapp on Single phone
• Phone is hacked or Not
• How to Port Airtel to Jio
• How to find website owner

Copyright © 2024 . Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.

• Entertainment
• Celebrities
• Ticket Sales
• Promoted: What to Watch on Prime Video

trending now

Diddy makes shocking statement after vile video of him beating,...

Fate of Iranian president— 'the 'Butcher of Tehran' — still...

Charges against Scottie Scheffler expected to be dropped after...

'Anxious' gambler, 72, says Atlantic City casino won't pay out...

Families flee Boy Scouts of America as organization moves toward...

Knicks vs. Pacers Game 7 live updates: Jalen Brunson out with...

Several students at historically black Morehouse College turn...

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's camp address Nigerian fugitive...

How princess diana’s solo nyc trip put brooklyn on the map in 1989.

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

In February 1989, Princess Diana came to Brooklyn.

The 27-year-old royal arrived via motorcade to Fort Greene to attend a performance by the Welsh National Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was part of a historic solo tour that included her famous visit to Harlem Hospital depicted in Season 4 of “ The Crown ,” where she held young AIDS patients.

Yet the idea of a princess crossing the bridge to attend an event in Brooklyn was almost as shocking as her Harlem stop. “CBS Evening News” ran an incredulous segment about the outer-borough jaunt, juxtaposing Di’s glamorous image with shots of homeless people, dilapidated buildings and broken sewers.

“We were so excited that we were getting national television coverage,” recalled Karen Brooks Hopkins, BAM’s former president and its chief fundraiser at the time, describing how the staff had pitched in to buy a little black-and-white TV so they could watch it at work. “Then the segment opens and [Dan Rather] is showing garbage on the streets of Brooklyn and asking, ‘Why is Princess Di coming here?’ We were shattered!”

Brooks Hopkins details the moment in her new book, “ BAM … And Then It Hit Me ” (PowerHouse Books), out March 1, which looks back at her 36 years at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Diana’s visit, she said, was an extra special memory.

“For a princess, coming to Brooklyn was stepping outside the comfort zone of high society at the time,” Brooks Hopkins told The Post. Her royal seal of approval “changed everything for us, for Brooklyn.” 

It started in 1988, with BAM prepping to launch its first opera season with a gala and performance of “Falstaff” by the Welsh National Opera. Brooks Hopkins had to figure out a way to sell enough tickets to fund the ambitious production.

“Brooklyn then was not the Brooklyn we know now,” she explained. “Getting people to cross the bridge to come to a show was a job .” 

That’s when the Welsh Opera’s general director told her Princess Diana was a patron, and he would invite her to the show. Brooks Hopkins didn’t quite believe he could get the most famous woman in the world to Kings County, so she was shocked when, a few weeks later, she got a call telling her to ready herself for a royal visit.

“This was an invitation that came to the right girl at the right time,” Brooks Hopkins said of Diana, who married Prince Charles in 1981. “I think she was ready for her solo trip where she could be the center of attention and do it her way.” 

On Feb. 2, the day of the gala, Diana’s private detail descended upon BAM, along with the FBI, Scotland Yard and the NYPD, all bringing bomb-sniffing dogs and mandating metal detectors. The princess was given her own dressing area, complete with a private bathroom and shower. (The crew discovered that someone had “absconded with the royal toilet seat” from her room a day later, Brooks Hopkins said. They never found the culprit.)

When the princess’ car finally arrived, Diana came out — a stunning vision in a white silk strapless gown, with brocade bodice and matching shrug.

“We were overwhelmed,” Brooks Hopkins recalled. “She was so gorgeous.” Brooks Hopkins greeted her, curtsied and ushered her inside through the stage door and then up the backstage elevator, where she met the other staffers.

“She was so nice to us and asked us questions about BAM,” Brooks Hopkins said, adding that she displayed an enthusiasm and eagerness so rarely found in celebrities. “We had walkie talkies, and she wanted us to show her how they worked and thought it was funny. I knew that the event would be a success.”

Outside, protestors shouted about the Troubles in Northern Ireland as limos lined the street and elegant guests poured into the theater and took their seats. Mayor Ed Koch wore a cheap suit instead of the mandatory tux. (“Apparently, he had been on the way to a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Waldorf,” Brooks Hopkins writes.) Even Donald Trump made an appearance, though Brooks Hopkins said her staff later had to chase him down for his money.

As the curtain went up, the orchestra played “The Star Spangled Banner” and “God Save the Queen,” and Diana made her grand entrance. “Everyone is standing, everyone is wearing black, and then she enters her royal box, wearing white, and a gasp goes up from the crowd. The drama!”

The opera sold out its entire five-night run.

“I don’t want to take away from the production, which was great, but Princess Di put it over the top [in terms of sales],” Brooks Hopkins said. The gala raised $1 million in one night, more than double the amount BAM’s biggest fundraisers brought in at the time.

In August 1997, when she heard the news of Diana’s death, Brooks Hopkins and her colleagues were devastated.

“We all felt like we had lost a friend — we felt so connected to her,” she said.

“It’s so great that she came to Brooklyn; another person might have been snobbier about it, but she was not like that. She wasn’t just going to do the traditional things, and that was kind of her whole image.”

Share this article:

Advertisement

What Princess Diana's 1989 Tour of New York City Looked Like in Real Life

Posted: May 19, 2024 | Last updated: May 19, 2024

While the events of The Crown mostly take place in the U.K., the show does occasionally go State-side. There was Princess Margaret's trip to Washington, D.C. in Season 3, and now, we have Princess Diana's three-day tour of New York in Season 4. The Netflix series recreates the royal's visit to the Big Apple in 1989, where she attended a gala, visited settlement housing complex, and spent time with children with AIDS, solidifying her title as "the People's Princess."

Unlike her tour of Australia years prior with Prince Charles and Prince William, Diana traveled solo for the engagements abroad. But even by herself, she won the hearts of New Yorkers. Ahead, take a look at what Diana did during her time in NYC.

February 1, 1989

The princess wears a ruched blue and black evening dress while out in New York.

February 2, 1989

Diana attends a dinner at the Winter Garden in a silky white ensemble.

The gala followed a performance of Verdi's ''Falstaff" by the Welsh National Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Princess Di greets well-wishers on her way to the Henry Street Settlement, a nonprofit social services agency, in New York's Lower East Side.

Crowds gather to see the princess.

Diana wears a pink and black, colorblocked suit by Catherine Walker.

Diana speaks to a woman and child while visiting a day care center in the Lower East Side.

February 3, 1989

The princess wears a red Catherine Walker skirt suit while visiting the AIDS unit at Harlem Hospital. She met several children suffering from the illness before ending her trip to New York.

Diana receives flowers at Harlem Hospital.

You Might Also Like

9 Rare Photos of Nicole Kidman's Early Career

More for You

Alvin Bragg Announces New Indictment

Watch Out for These 10 Car Brands With Poor Engine Ratings

Young Sheldon’s Jim Parsons finale cameo changes the meaning of the entire series

‘That’s absurd’: Fetterman fires back at AOC over House clash

Taylor Sheridan Says Farewell To Dabney Coleman, Explains Why He Gave Mentor Unforgettable Turn As Dutton Family Patriarch In ‘Yellowstone'

Applebee's Forced to Close 35 More Locations in 2024

Here is the true value of having a fully paid-off home in America — especially when you're heading into retirement

Gayle King’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Featured the Detail Shoppers Call “Incredibly Flattering”

The 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Better Chicken Salad

UCLA locks doors on conservative students, preventing them from hosting pro-Israel event: YAF

17 movie and TV lines actors refused to say on screen: ‘I’m a self-respecting human being, I can’t do this’

These 12 States Are Banning the Sale of Gas-Powered Cars

Map reveals best places to live in the US if nuclear war breaks out

The Quiet Invasion: 18 States Where Property Taxes Are Slowly Devouring Homeowners

25 Remarkable Fictional Female Heroines

Jamie Dimon delivers startling message about inflation

Selena Gomez Wears Stunning Off-The-Shoulder Gown to Cannes Film Festival Premiere

The $1 ALDI Find I Keep in the Pantry for Easy Weeknight Dinners

Giant lake suddenly returns 130 years after vanishing

22 Vintage Children’s Toys That Are Worth More Money Now

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Princess Diana's 1989 Trip to New York Will Appear in The Crown Season 4

From Town & Country

Princess Diana is set to travel quite a bit in the next season of The Crown . Back in October, actors Josh O'Connor and Emma Corrin were seen restaging Prince Charles and Princess Diana's 1983 royal tour of Australia , and now, paparazzi have spotted Corrin filming another iconic royal trip—this time, Diana's 1989 solo visit to New York.

Corrin was photographed on set in Manchester, England, which had been done up to look like the streets of New York. She was wearing what appeared to be a recreation of Diana's white Victor Edelstein gown, which the royal wore to a charity gala at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music.

The Crown also recreated another one of Diana's stops in New York: a visit to the Henry Street Settlement. According to the Manchester Evening News , a building in Manchester's Northern Quarter was modified to approximate the look of the Settlement.

Corrin was photographed in another costume, filming what was believed to be another New York scene. While her plaid skirt suit didn't quite resemble the clothing Princess Diana actually wore during her other stops in New York—that would be a purple and black suit—the look does feel like something that Diana would've worn.

Diana's three-day visit to New York is certainly deserving of some air time on The Crown . The Princess made waves when she visited the Henry Street Settlement and AIDS patients at a Harlem hospital—and of course, she made quite an impact at that gala.

Fans can look forward to seeing the show's take on these historical events when The Crown 's fourth season debuts , likely later this year.

You Might Also Like

12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

What Your Favorite Champagne Brand Says About You

Beauty Gurus Share Their Makeup Secrets for Older Women

Recommended Stories

Dolphins owner stephen ross reportedly declined $10 billion for team, stadium and f1 race.

The value of the Dolphins and Formula One racing is enormous.

PGA Championship: Will Zalatoris says group of players considered asking for postponement after death, Scottie Scheffler arrest

It was a surreal day at the PGA Championship.

Housing experts revise mortgage rate forecasts for remainder of 2024

Experts are revising their forecasts about mortgage rates and home prices for the rest of the year.

Oleksandr Usyk defeats Tyson Fury by split decision to become first undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years

Boxing hadn't had an undisputed heavyweight king since 2000.

Preakness Stakes 2024 winner, payouts, results: Seize the Grey wins at Pimlico, Mystik Dan finishes 2nd, ending Triple Crown bid

Live updates from the 149th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore

The Mavericks' major gambles pay off as Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving lead charge to West finals

Shrewd moves and timely deals have the aggressive Mavericks moving on in the postseason — and perhaps to an even better tomorrow.

UFC Vegas 92: Piera Rodríguez DQ'd for multiple illegal headbutts vs. Ariane Carnelossi

Rodríguez was warned by the ref to watch her head. She responded by headbutting her opponent even harder.

Auburn RB Brian Battie critically wounded in Sarasota shooting

Battie's older brother Tommie was killed and three others were shot early Saturday morning .

Report: Fanatics files lawsuit against Cardinals rookie WR Marvin Harrison Jr. for breach of contract

Marvin Harrison Jr., Fanatics said, “rejected or ignored every request” from the company while refusing to fulfill obligations of their contract that was signed last May.

2024 NBA Mock Draft 7.0: Who will the Hawks take at No. 1? Our projections for every pick with lottery order now set

With the lottery order set, here's a look at Yahoo Sports' projections for both rounds of the 2024 NBA Draft.

Princess Diana's 1989 Visit to New York Is Re-created for The Crown Season 4

Actress Emma Corrin's hair and makeup is perfect.

• Manchester in England was transformed into New York for the Netflix show.
• The actress' hair was perfectly coiffed, just like Diana's, and she wore a houndstooth suit, a style which was beloved by the princess.

The Crown Season 4 is currently in production, and thanks to some eagle-eyed photographers, we've been getting an insight into what new episodes will entail.

Having already spotted actress Emma Corrin filming Princess Diana's wedding rehearsal , photographers have now captured the star re-creating the royal's trip to New York.

While attending a charity gala at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Princess Diana wore an unforgettable Victor Edelstein gown, and it seems that Season 4 of The Crown will re-create this moment perfectly.

As reported by Manchester Evening News , "Princess Diana made a solo trip to New York in 1989, visiting the Henry Street Settlement that was a halfway house for homeless families in the lower east side of Manhattan.... It was on this same trip that she famously paid a visit to young AIDS patients at a Harlem Hospital."

While Princess Diana wore a very different look during her 1989 trip to NYC, the timeline fits with where Season 4 of The Crown is headed. Plus, Corrin's hair and makeup seems to be a perfect replication of Diana's New York style.

Diana did, however, wear similar suits throughout her life, including one during a trip to New York in 1995.

Of Corrin's performance, actor Josh O'Connor, who plays Prince Charles on the show , previously told BAZAAR.com , "Emma's doing a brilliant job, and it's breathtakingly accurate; she looked the spitting image [of Diana], and it's kind of extraordinary. So that's kind of spooky."

60 Things You Didn't Know About <i>The Crown</i>

Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. Her bylines include Harper's BAZAAR, Nicki Swift, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, ELLE, The Independent, Bustle, Healthline, and HelloGiggles. She co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Illness , and previously spent all of her money on Kylie Cosmetics.

All About The Crown: News, Spoilers, and Episode Recaps

What to Know About “The Crown” Season 6 Part 2

What Elizabeth Debicki Learned From Diana

Who Is Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi's Father?

How Did the Queen React to Diana’s Death?

How The Crown Swallowed the Royal Family

Meet Your New Kate Middleton

Comparing The Crown Actors to Will & Kate

The Crown ’s S6 Trailer Is All About Diana

Why Prince Philip's Title Wasn't King

Elizabeth Debicki on Making Princess Diana Her Own

Yes, The Crown's Tampongate Really Happened

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

Start Spreading the News! 30 Photos of the Royal Family Visiting New York City Through the Years

They do say if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere ... 

In 1939, King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (a.k.a. the Queen Mother) were chauffeured around New York by none other than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his daughter-in-law, Betsey.

In 1954, the Queen Mother made a visit to the top of the Empire State Building for a bird's-eye view of the city.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip made a visit to the city so nice that they named it twice in July 1976, making a stop at Federal Hall, where George Washington was inaugurated and she was proclaimed an honorary New York citizen .

What's a trip to New York City without a little shopping? Queen Elizabeth II also made time to stop at Bloomingdale's during her visit to do a little browsing.

In June 1981, Prince Charles made a trip to New York City, where he and First Lady of the United States Nancy Reagan attended the Royal Ballet Gala at Lincoln Center.

In 1989, Princess Diana made her inaugural visit to New York City — her first trip overseas without Prince Charles . During the trip, Diana visited the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and later stopped by the iconic FAO Schwarz toy store (pictured).

"When Diana entered the box, radiant in a magnificent long white dress with a matching bolero jacket covered in jewels, a gasp went up from the crowd," Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of BAM, told PEOPLE of Princess Diana's 1989 trip to the opera while visiting N.Y.C. in 1989.

The following day, the royal visited the AIDS unit of Harlem Hospital, and was so moved that she hugged a 7-year-old child who had AIDS.

According to a report by the Associated Press at the time, she asked the child, "Are you heavy?" before picking him up ″unrehearsed and of her own volition."

In doing so, Diana helped to break the stigma at the time that AIDS could be transmitted through touch.

Following her divorce from Prince Charles , Diana once again traveled to N.Y.C., attending the Costume Institute Gala — now known as the Met Gala — in 1996, wearing a navy slip dress.

In June 1997, months before her tragic death, Diana auctioned a selection of her dresses at famed auction house Christie's in New York City. Proceeds benefitted the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and the AIDS Crisis Trust, for which the auction raised a reported $3.25 million .

While in New York, Diana paid a visit to The Bronx to see Mother Teresa, who died that September.

In January 2007, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, traveled to N.Y.C., where Charles received the Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. He also met national treasure Meryl Streep (left).

In May 2009, Prince Harry paid a two-day visit to New York City, stopping to meet a fire crew while playing his respects at the World Trade Center.

Prince Harry wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty while helping to plant a tree during an official naming of the British Garden at Hanover Square, in New York City's Financial District, in May 2009.

Take Prince Harry out to the ball game! The royal tried his hand at baseball while throwing out the first pitch for the New York Mets in June 2010.

He must not have thought he had a career in baseball in his future, because the next day Prince Harry was competing in the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic.

In July 2010, Queen Elizabeth returned to N.Y.C. for the first time since her 1976 visit and addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

The monarch also paid her respects at the World Trade Center.

On second thought, maybe Harry does secretly hope to become a baseball star ... in May 2013, he participated in a baseball clinic during the launch of a new partnership between the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harlem RBI, a local community organization in the Harlem neighborhood of N.Y.C.

In December 2014, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton , bundled up to brave the New York winter while on their first official visit to the city.

The couple visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum while in N.Y.C., viewing the remains of the former broadcast tower from the World Trade Center.

The pair dazzled while attending the St. Andrews' 600th anniversary dinner at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Also in attendance was William's cousin, Princess Eugenie !

The British royals also managed to meet America's royals when they ran into Beyoncé and JAY-Z at a Brooklyn Nets game.

The pair received a sweet gift from the Cleveland Cavaliers while at the game: personalized jerseys from star LeBron James, one for the couple that read 'Cambridge' and another for then-tiny Prince George with his name.

In October 2017, Princess Eugenie and now-husband Jack Brooksbank sat courtside at a New York Knicks game alongside singer Ellie Goulding and husband Caspar Jopling.

In July 2018, Princess Eugenie stopped by the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, where she spoke about her work as Director of the Anti-Slavery Collective during the NEXUS Meeting.

In 2018, Princess Beatrice attended the Met Gala in a royal blue gown by Alberta Ferretti that was fit for the theme: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination.

In February 2019, Meghan Markle reunited with friends — including Serena Williams , Amal Clooney, Gayle King and Jessica Mulroney — for a baby shower ahead of the birth of son Archie .

In September 2019, Markle was on hand to cheer on her pal, Serena Williams , at the U.S. Open Women's Final in Queens, New York.

"The crowd went wild when they showed her on the screen," a spectator told PEOPLE. "They did it as soon as they possibly could — it was the very first break in action."

In September 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle traveled back to New York City , kicking off their trip by paying a visit to One World Observatory at the World Trade Center.

The pair were in the Big Apple to attend Global Citizen Live from Central Park "to continue their urgent work with world leaders in the pursuit of global vaccine equity to end the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere," according to Global Citizen .

Related Articles