Princess Diana valued "human contact".
The late royal – who tragically passed away in 1997 when she was involved in a fatal car crash in Paris, France, aged 36 – shook the world when she was photographed shaking hands with an AIDS sufferer during the height of the disease’s epidemic in 1987 when people feared catching the illness.
Now her brother, Earl Spencer, has said she never enjoyed wearing gloves and said her move to shake the hand of the suffering man was intended to break down social barriers and smash the stigma surrounding the disease.
He told People magazine: "She was not really a gloves person. She was very real and very about human contact. And what really mattered that day was to get across a very clear message that, ‘I’m going to touch this gentleman — and you can all exist in a community with people who are suffering, and we must help."
Meanwhile, Earl Spencer previously said his sister "deserves a place in history" and should be honoured as a "special person", even by those who are too young to remember her.
Speaking in a clip released ahead of an American documentary ‘The Story of Diana’ – which is set to air on ABC in two parts in August – Earl Spencer said: "One of the reasons I want to talk now is because I think that after 20 years someone shifts from becoming a contemporary person, to one of history.
"And Diana deserves a place in history. And I think it’s important for people under 35 who probably won’t remember her at all to remember that this was a special person and not just a beautiful one.
"Obviously 99.9 percent of the people had never seen her, or met her, but they felt something in her that was fascinating and intriguing, and a force for good."
Princess Diana valued ‘human contact’
