Princess Diana was a huge fan of Michael Jackson long before she met him

The late princess was said to have been a fan of Jackson’s long before they met on July 16, 1988, at his “Bad” concert tour in Wembley Stadium. Like the rest of the world, Princess Diana was reported to have been listening to the songs Thriller and Bad on repeat before the concert.

“She told me she was honoured to meet me,” Jackson told Barbara Walters in a 1997 interview.

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Jackson changed his concert set list for Princess Diana

In the same interview with Walters, Jackson revealed that he deliberately removed the song Dirty Diana from his 1988 “Bad” concert set list out of respect for the princess.

“I wrote a song called Dirty Diana and it’s not about Lady Diana,” Jackson said. “It’s about certain kind of girls that hang around concerts or clubs, they call them groupies. [Diana] took me away and she said, ‘Are you gonna do Dirty Diana?’ I said ‘No, I took it out of the show because of you.’ She said, ‘No, I want you to do it! Do the song!’”

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3am phone calls made their friendship stronger

Their meeting back in 1988 may have been their first and only face-to-face encounter, but the pair built a connection that was so strong they continued to stay in contact, even making 3am phone calls to each other.

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They both used the press to their advantage – and for good

Being globally recognised celebrities, both found ways to deal with the constant barrage of media and paparazzi attention by using it to their advantage. Knowing she would get followed everywhere, Princess Diana made sure it was on her own terms.