Princess Diana vs. Queen Elizabeth in the Afterlife

About

Princess Diana vs. Queen Elizabeth II in the Afterlife refers to a series of memes and jokes that explore the concept of Princess Diana exacting revenge in the afterlife on Queen Elizabeth II, who, according to popular belief, mistreated her during her lifetime. The memes gained virality online immediately following Queen Elizabeth II's death in early September 2022.

Origin

Background

In 1981, Diana Frances Spencer married Prince Charles, becoming the Princess of Wales.^[1] The marriage between Diana and Charles proved to be a mismatch due to age differences and incompatibility, ultimately resulting in divorce in 1996.

Marriage troubles, Princess Diana's bulimia, and other factors contributed to her relationship with royal family members purportedly becoming strained. A commonly held belief is that Princess Diana was mistreated by the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II. The contradiction between Queen Elizabeth's traditional views and Diana's outspoken personality led to a belief that the two weren't close and that Elizabeth didn't provide enough support and kindness to her son's wife.^[2][3]

Meme Origin

On September 8th, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 after a health scare earlier that morning. Following the news of the health scare, and later of Queen's passing, users on Twitter posted memes about Diana Spenser exacting revenge on Queen Elizabeth in the afterlife. A 7:58 a.m. EST, Twitter^[4] user @brvdnx posted the earliest found meme exploring the idea, with the post gaining over 900 retweets and 4,400 likes in one day (shown below).

Spread

Later on September 8th and September 9th, 2022, more memes exploring the concept were posted on social media, primarily on Twitter, with multiple posts going viral. For example, on September 8th, Twitter^[5] user @LewFnufc posted a meme that received over 59,900 retweets and 382,100 likes in one day (shown below).

Twitter^[6] user @_joshmcintyre_ posted a The Queen Has Breached Containment meme that received over 80,400 retweets and 506,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Later that day, Redditor^[7] RiftWeeb posted a meme that received over 109,000 upvotes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References