80s Pop Icon’s Meeting With Princess Diana Proves How Cool She Really Was

Sep 14, 2025 10:22 AM EDT

Debbie Gibson is one of the lucky people who got to meet Princess Diana and share a special moment with her. The pop star recalled her encounter with the People’s Princess on the inside pages of her new memoir, Eternally Electric.

“It was such a surreal evening, with me telling the princess how the special gown I’d wanted to wear for my receiving-line moment had been vetoed by the producers because they wanted me ready to open the show,” Gibson wrote in her book, according to People magazine. “They had insisted I wear my video-look performance outfit — blue-jean cutoff shorts, a vest, and a bandana in my hair — but she could not have been more gracious.”

“‘You look a heck of a lot more comfortable than I am,’ she leaned in and whispered,” Gibson — who was just 18-years-old at the time — recalled.

Gibson’s encounter with Princess Diana proves just how cool she was. Of course, this one moment is just more proof that Lady Di was down to earth. There are plenty of other examples of how Diana, who died in Aug. 1997, paved her own way within the royal family.

Perhaps one of the most notable things that Diana did was roller skate through Buckingham Palace.

“It’s true!” The Crown producer Oona O’Beirn told Vogue in 2020, adding that there was also evidence that Diana “rode her bicycle around [inside the palace] the night before she got married…”

“It’s hard to do on some of those carpets. I think she probably stuck to less interesting bits of the palace, but we wanted to set it in the bits of the palace we’d already seen. It reminds you that Diana was only 19 at that time,” O’Beirn added.

About the author

Effie Orfanides is a trending news writer for Parade.com. With more than two decades of experience, she focuses on celebrity news, celebrity relationships, music, and reality television.