Therapists are skilled at helping others navigate grief, but what happens when the grief they encounter is their own? In August 1997, Julia Samuel had been working as a counsellor for families grieving the loss of a child for several years when her close friend Princess Diana died in a car crash. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Julia Samuel with Princess Diana at Wimbledon in 1994.
Photo: @SpokenEdition/X","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/27/d17fe513-991d-46f6-9d0e-3d218b428923_07d3c8e3.
jpg"} Julia Samuel with Princess Diana at Wimbledon in 1994. Photo: @SpokenEdition/X “I remember clearly the shock I’d felt when she died,” Samuel shared with Time Magazine back in 2018. “The pain and subsequent fury of missing her and wanting her back.
” Twenty-seven years later, Samuel has become a leading figure in bereavement counselling in the United Kingdom, per The Guardian. In 2016, she was even appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her service. What else do we know about the late Princess Diana’s close friend? She hails from a privileged background {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Julia Samuel in 2020. Photo: @juliasamuelmbe/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/27/3cd02a2e-8e14-42d4-ba10-10ae1fb14f8.