Diana, Princess of Wales, featured in newly broadcast footage from her 1997 Angola trip advocating against landmines. Photo / Getty Imagess
Diana, Princess of Wales, featured in newly broadcast footage from her 1997 Angola trip advocating against landmines. Photo / Getty Imagess
Diana, Princess of Wales has featured in newly broadcast behind-the-scenes footage from a controversial humanitarian trip to Angola months before her death.
Offering a rare glimpse of her private reflections during the campaign, Diana, who was 36 at the time of her Paris car crash death, travelled to Angola inJanuary 1997 to support a global ban on landmines, a visit that drew political criticism in the UK. Newly aired footage of her on the trip, broadcast by ITV News, shows Diana speaking with journalists during the trip, including Steve Scott, who was then the outlet’s Africa correspondent.
During the visit, Diana walked through a live minefield wearing protective gear and met victims of landmines, including children who had lost limbs.
The trip became one of the defining humanitarian moments of her public life, even as it sparked debate because of perceived alignment with Labour Party policy at the time, which the then Conservative Government criticised.
Steve Scott said: “I stood with her on the plane. It was a long conversation. She wanted to talk about her boys and about how much she missed them when she goes away.
“Despite the fact that this campaign was very important to her and that she was going to continue working on it, her priority was her boys and that’s where she would be focusing most of her energy going forward.”
Diana's efforts raised global awareness, contributing to the removal of an estimated 100,000 landmines in Angola. Photo / Getty Images
He added: “Once it had sunk in, I just found it very, very sad. A woman who could have made a big difference was now no longer with us. The woman I spoke to about her sons and how important they were to her, suddenly those boys did not have that mother who was going to guide them through life.
“Who knows how their relationship might have developed had she still been around?”
In the archive clip, Diana addressed the controversy surrounding the visit, saying: “I saw it merely as a distraction as I’m not a political figure, I’m a humanitarian figure.”
The footage forms part of ITV News’ Reporting History series, available across ITVX and other platforms.
Diana’s work on the Angola trip contributed to global awareness of landmine dangers, with efforts since resulting in the removal of an estimated 100,000 landmines from the country.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, 41, later revisited the site of Diana’s walk in 2019 and continues to support landmine clearance efforts as a patron of the Halo Trust.
