The People's Princess was beloved by Americans and frequently stunned them whenever she visited - whether that was charming President Ronald Reagan or famously dancing with John Travolta at the White House.
And it is clear that the feeling was entirely mutual as Diana, Princess of Wales was reportedly planning a permanent move Stateside when she died aged 36 in a car crash following her divorce from the-then Prince of Wales.
A number of sources close to the late royal confirmed these reports, from former staff members to her own sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York.
In 2020, Diana's trusted Butler, Paul Burrell told CBS News: "I remember she set out in her sitting room, the plans of a home in Malibu, California, the former home of Julie Andrews, and she said to me 'I'm buying this house and buying this house to give William and Harry a new perspective on life'."
The property was a Tuscan-style villa set on a five acre estate in the Paradise Cove area of Malibu, which had been bought by Dodi for $7.5m in June 1997.
According to Burrell, Diana relished in the fact that there was no class system or establishment and told him "nobody's judgemental here in America".
In his memoir, Protecting Diana: A Bodyguard's Story, Lee Sansum recalled how the Princess was about to tell the paparazzi of her plans to move to America in an effort to protect Princes William and Harry.
Sansum wrote: "Then she told me: 'I want to go to the US and live there so I can get away from it all. At least in America, they like me and will leave me alone.'"
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The former bodyguard said he remembered asking Diana if her sons would be joining her, to which she explained she would never be allowed to take them from their royal duties.
If her plan had succeeded, Diana reportedly said: "I will probably only be able to see them in the school holidays."
Simone Simmons, Diana's trusted psychic and friend, also told the Daily Star that the royal was still in love with her ex-boyfriend, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, and hoped that they would be able to move Stateside together.
Simmons, who wrote a book titled 'Diana: The Last Word' about her time counselling the Princess, said Diana planned to ditch Dodi and move with Hasnat to the US.
In September 2021, she said: "She wanted to move to America or South Africa with Hasnat and was already over Dodi when she died – he was just there to try and make Hasnat jealous. He was just a playboy, not Diana's type at all.
"Diana viewed the actress Julie Andrews’ house in Los Angeles as a possible place to move but what she really wanted was for Hasnat to come with her.
She was hounded by so many rumours and false stories about who she was sleeping with and the pressure of her fame was really getting to her."
