Why Princess Diana Loved 'When Harry Met Sally' So Much She Had a Private Screening at Buckingham Palace
Princess Diana attended the London premiere of When Harry Met Sally in 1989 and loved the movie so much she had a private screening of it at Buckingham Palace.


- When Harry Met Sally is a romantic comedy classic (opens in new tab), with lots of celebrity supporters.
- Princess Diana was among them, and attended the film's 1989 royal premiere in London alongside stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Diana reportedly loved the movie so much, she had a private screening for her friends at Buckingham Palace.
- In Erin Carlson's 2017 book I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy (opens in new tab), Crystal revealed what Diana thought of the movie's iconic orgasm scene.
Fun fact: Princess Diana (opens in new tab) was a rom-com fan. One of her favorites? The 1989 Meg Ryan/Billy Crystal classic When Harry Met Sally.
Diana famously attended the film's 1989 royal premiere in London, where she met with Ryan and Crystal (and Dennis Quaid, who was dating Ryan at the time).
During the screening, she sat right next to Crystal, who shared her absolutely delightful (and delighted) reaction to the film's famous orgasm scene in Erin Carlson's 2017 book I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy (opens in new tab) (the Kindle edition of which happens to be on mega sale at Amazon (opens in new tab) right now, for what it's worth).
"When the orgasm scene starts, she was laughing so hard, just belching it out. She had the kind of laugh where if you were on a date, you'd never want to see her again," Crystal told Carlson. "Then she grabbed my hand and said, 'So naughty.'"
Diana was reportedly such a fan of the film, she even arranged to have a private screening for her friends at Buckingham Palace. There's a good "I'll have what she's having" joke in here somewhere, but I tragically just can't find it.
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Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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