Carrie Lloyd, whose father worked closely with Princess Diana, shared how the late Princess of Wales helped calm a crying baby — even though it meant revealing herself to an entire plane

Princess Diana during a state visit to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Princess Diana knew just what to do to help a fellow mother in a pinch.

On a recent episode of the Storia Podcast, Carrie Lloyd — whose father Tony Lloyd worked closely with the late Princess of Wales as the director of her patronage The Leprosy Mission — shared a previously unknown tale showcasing Diana’s warmth toward children.

Carrie explained in a clip shared on Instagram on July 7 that Princess Diana was in the first-class area of a flight, and “there was someone just behind the curtain with a baby crying and screaming, and you could tell this mother was just on her own.”

“Diana was looking through the crack in the window, and she turns to Ken, her bodyguard, and says, ‘Please Ken, can I just go back there and go and help her?’ And he says, ‘No ma’am, you really cannot go through. No one knows you’re on this flight,’ ” she continued.

After getting a second opinion from Tony about the situation, to which he said, “Well, I don’t really see why there would be a problem,” Princess Diana made her way to the mother and child. As the mom of Prince William and Prince Harry moved through the curtains, Carrie said that her father “just saw these faces, kind of wide-eyed, at who just come through.”

“And she goes, ‘Can I help you for a minute? I’ve got more room up there,’ ” Carrie said, motioning her arms as she said that the woman “just passed this baby up” to the royal.

“Diana took the baby, went behind the curtain. Five minutes later, just walking up and down, just nursing this baby, [who] fell straight to sleep,” she said. “Handed the baby back over to the mother, who was now crying her eyes out by this point. And Diana turned and said, ‘It happens to the best of us.’ “

Richard Branson, who Carrie said regularly set Princess Diana up on flights for her charity events, commented on the video, “Lovely story and memories, thanks for sharing.”

Princess Diana in Washington, D.C. in November 1985.Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty

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In January 2023, Carrie wrote about the close connection her father and the late Princess of Wales shared for Premier Christianity.

“My late father was Diana’s charity advisor and director of The Leprosy Mission, one of the six charities that she held patronage to until her death. Rumor has it that she continued in the role because she trusted the confidentiality of my father’s friendship,” she said of their relationship.

In another snippet of the show shared to Instagram, Carrie recapped how they crossed paths. The author and pastor said that during Princess Diana’s visit to see Mother Teresa, the Nobel Prize-winning nun suggested she go to see the leprosy patients “at the local rehabilitation hospital, which was my father’s hospital.”

Carrie told the Storia Podcast hosts Fabiano Altamura and David Noroña that Princess Diana made a “coup” with the paparazzi, who photographed her time inside. At the center, the royal removed her gloves and started touching “every single hand and every single face, which blew the stigma off around the world,” Carris said.

Princess Diana shaking hands with a patient at Sitanala Leprosy Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia.Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

The next day, the tabloid headlines read, “Don’t do it Di,” and Tony contacted Kensington Palace to express his gratitude because “what she’s done in five minutes, we’ve been trying to do for 120 years.”

From there, Carrie said the royal’s private secretary Patrick Jephson passed the phone to Diana.

” ‘Tony, what you’re doing out there is extraordinary. How can I help?’ ” Carrie cited Diana as saying.

Princess Diana and the Rev. Tony Lloyd at the 30th anniversary meeting of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations in London.Rebecca Naden/PA/Getty

The Leprosy Mission’s website states that Princess Diana became a patron soon after a trip to Indonesia in November 1989 and stayed on with the cause after reducing her patronages from 100 to six in 1996. She remained the patron until her death in 1997 at age 36 from a Paris car crash.