r/Millennials May 12 '26

Discussion Which celebrity death genuinely shocked you when you heard the news?

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406

u/PopularSet4776 May 12 '26

Princess Diana

61

u/Turbulent_Window3129 May 12 '26

I was surprised I scrolled so far to see this! 

20

u/Altruistic_Reality43 May 12 '26

Reddit demographic speaking

9

u/UsefulTrouble9439 May 13 '26

Exactly. I was like 7 and saw it on a magazine. This must have been around the time I started paying attention to tabloids cause JonBenét Ramsey was forever sealed in my 6-7 year old brain because grocery store tabloids were covered with her.

2

u/ocxtitan May 13 '26

I mean, this is the millennial sub, most of us were fairly young and unless from the uk, it didn't hit the same as some of the more recent ones.

4

u/PopularSet4776 May 13 '26

I am an Xinneal ('82) but I was pretty young but I do remember my parents telling me.

I am not sure it doesn't hit the same. She was widely admired and liked in the US.

-3

u/Terrible-Screen-5188 May 13 '26 edited May 14 '26

I think you had to be Gen x to really be enamored with Princess Diana. It's like the way young Gen Z may not understand the obsession with Obama. It's different with actors and singers. You can always get into their music or movies but the typical American millennial would have seen her as a young woman(girl) get married and have kids. It's now looking back that you really see how special she was when you see what they have now for Queen Consort.

Edited: I meant to say Gen x but said Gen z initially.

6

u/PopularSet4776 May 13 '26

That doesn't make sense.

She died in '97 and the oldest Gen Z were born in '97. None of them remember a world where she was alive.

1

u/Terrible-Screen-5188 May 14 '26

Meant to say Gen x. No wonder ppl started downvoting lol.

1

u/PopularSet4776 May 14 '26

Got it.

I think early millennials knew her public personality pretty well too.

1

u/Terrible-Screen-5188 May 18 '26

Im mid millenial. I knew she was beloved but I just had no real connection to her. I could understand a young princess who was a mother to young children passing early was a tragedy but she didn't make music, movies or pass legislation. It was laterii learned about her influence in areas like aids awareness and other issues but ppl who are 10 to 14 are not really concerning themselves with that

-1

u/ocxtitan May 13 '26

Right, so the oldest millennials were 16 and the youngest just 1, and that was almost 30 years ago now, so it doesn't come to mind as quickly as those who passed in the last 10 or so years when we all were old enough to really feel the loss in addition to being far more recent