Diana, Princess of Wales

(CNN) In 1995, two years before Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris, she said in a TV interview that she'd like to be a queen. But she wasn't talking about the British monarchy into which she'd married. She wanted to be a queen of people's hearts.

In the 23 years since her death on August 31, 1997, it's become clear how well she fulfilled that hope. Every August, tributes pour in to celebrate her life and legacy -- one that valued authenticity over protocol, and humanity over prestige.

She used her celebrity to raise awareness for a number of causes, from leprosy to domestic violence to mental health. She made headlines in 1987 when she intentionally shook hands with an AIDS patient, working to dispel the myth that HIV/AIDS could be spread through touch. And in the months before she died, she took her media spotlight and placed it squarely on the dangers of landmines in Angola.

She was, in the words of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, "the people's princess."

'People felt a kinship with her'

When Blair used that phrase in a speech following Diana's death, he was searching for words to help a nation grieve a shockingly sudden loss.

The Princess of Wales had finalized her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996, but intense media scrutiny still trailed her as she went on vacation the following summer with boyfriend Dodi Fayed. Just after midnight on August 31, a Mercedes carrying Diana and Fayed crashed in a tunnel not far from Paris' Eiffel Tower. The accident killed Diana, Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.

The news reached the royal family while they were away in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. Within hours, Charles flew to Paris to retrieve Diana's body before returning to Balmoral to be with his and Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

"The immediate reaction of the royal family was to say, 'We must hunker down and protect the children; there will be formalities that will followed but that's what we do," says author Jonathan Dimbleby in CNN's Original Series on the royal family, "The Windsors."