‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ Star Pays Tribute to Princess Diana During U.K. Visit
Whitney Way Thore made a special stop during her recent trip to the U.K.
The My Big Fat Fabulous Life star has been sharing photos from her jaunt across the pond on Instagram. On July 8, she uploaded a carousel of images showing highlights from a visit to Althorp House, the childhood home of Diana Spencer, the future Princess of Wales.
“Swipe for a love story,” she captioned the post.
Whitney Way Thore visits Princess Diana’s family home
The TLC personality shared photos of Althorp House, its gardens, and a resident cat, as well as one of her and a friend posing in front of the Princess Diana memorial.
In a comment on the post, Whitney described her visit as “lovely.” She also clarified to a follower that she did not visit Diana’s actual gravesite. The princess is buried on a small island in the lake that is only open to family.
“This is just the memorial; her actual grave is not accessible to the public,” Whitney wrote.
Althorp has been home to the Spencer family for hundreds of years. Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, is the current Earl Spencer. The house and grounds are open for tours in the summer months.
Charles selected Diana’s final resting place with her two sons in mind. He wanted both Prince William and Prince Harry to be able to visit their mother’s grave in privacy.
“I think it’s very important for them to be there with her,” he told People. “It is, luckily, very tranquil here and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want. And that’s very lovely for me to know that.”
The isolated grave also keeps away “the insane and the ghoulish,” Charles wrote in his 1998 book Althorp: The Story of an English House.
‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ star has talked about public mourning
While Whitney has no known connection to Diana, she and the Spencer family have shared the challenge of publicly mourning a loved one.
In 2022, Whitney’s beloved mother, Barbara “Babs” Thore died at age 76. Babs was frequently seen on her daughter’s reality show, and her emotional funeral was featured in the 2023 season of My Big Fat Fabulous Life. Not all viewers agreed with the family’s choice to make a traditionally private moment public. But Whitney defended the decision.
“The assumption that it was my decision at all, it’s my father’s decision,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “My father wanted the funeral to be public and he wanted the public to come. He asked to post on social media. Nothing makes him happier than people loving my mother. He is so proud of her and so obsessed with her. And he likes to, you know, she’s a public figure. She was loved publicly and I want her to be mourned publicly.”
“He compared it to Princess Diana and the Queen of England and other funerals that are public and it’s true,” she added.
New episodes of My Big Fat Fabulous Life air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
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