On July 22, 2024, the Instagram account @historyphotographed posted two photographs purportedly showing Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mother Teresa, the famed missionary nun and Catholic saint, bowing to each other and holding hands. The post had received around 25,400 likes at the time of this writing.
(Instagram user @historyphotographed)
On the same day, the same photos were also posted by the Facebook account HistoryInPictures, which, like the Instagram page, is run by Damier Media. The Facebook post had received around 1,100 reactions at the time of this writing.
Social media accounts associated with the HistoryInPictures brand have shared the images before. For example, the X account @HistoryInPics, which is also run by Damier Media, the group behind the Instagram and Facebook accounts, shared one of the images on Dec. 23, 2016.
The July 2024 Instagram and Facebook posts and the 2016 X post all included a caption reading: "Princess Diana and Mother Teresa in New York. June 18, 1997. 📸 Anwar Hussein."
Snopes has confirmed that the photographs authentically show Princess Diana visiting Mother Teresa in New York City on June 18, 1997, as the captions of the Instagram and Facebook posts claim.Â
The meeting between the two women took place at a Bronx hospital where Mother Teresa, then 86, was being treated. Video footage of Princess Diana and Teresa outside the building is available courtesy of The Associated Press's official AP Archive account on Youtube.
Snopes was also able to confirm that at least one of the two photos shared by the @historyphotographed Instagram account and the HistoryinPictures Facebook account was taken by Anwar Hussein, a photojournalist who has captured images of the British royal family since the 1960s.
That image, which shows Diana and Mother Teresa holding hands while Mother Teresa waves to the crowd, is available for licensing through Getty Images, which cites Hussein as the photographer who took it.
Hussein himself has also shared the image on his personal Instagram account, @anwarhusseinphotography.
Snopes has not been able to confirm the photographer of the other image, which shows Princess Diana bowing to Mother Teresa with clasped hands. Photos capturing the same moment are available via stock image licensing site Alamy as well as through the AP Newsroom, but neither photo is an exact match for the one in the HistoryInPictures posts.
We've reached out to Hussein to ask if he can confirm his authorship of this particular image, and will update this story if and when we hear back.
Regardless of which photographer captured the image of Princess Diana bowing, it is true that Princess Diana and Mother Teresa met and were photographed in New York City on June 18, 1997. For this reason, we rate this claim as "True."
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