Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, was once spotted wearing throwback Philadelphia Eagles merch

NFL UK & Ireland took to X on Sunday to post a throwback picture of the late Princess Diana sporting vintage merch of the Super Bowl LIX champion, Philadelphia Eagles. They captioned the post:

“Talk about a trend setter! Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, was rocking the throwback @Eagles merch before they were Super Bowl champs 🦅”

The post brought back memories of a time when the Princess of Wales was spotted wearing an Eagles varsity jacket. Interestingly, Lady Diana was never reported to be a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles or American football and many were surprised to see the photographs showing her in Eagles merchandise.

The story of how she ended up sporting the Eagles merchandise dates back to the year 1982 when Lady Diana visited the funeral of Grace Kelly, the then Princess of Monaco. While Diana was representing the British Royal family, she met Eagles statistician, Jack Edelstein, who struck up a conversation with her. Kelly was born and raised in Philadelphia and several Philadelphians were invited to the funeral.

Edelstein spoke about his meeting in an interview with Town & Country, a website dedicated to society, art and culture:

“She thought football was like soccer. She asked, 'What are your colors?' I said, 'Green and silver.' She said, 'Those are my favorite colors.'”

After learning about her favorite colors, Edelstein promised to send her some Eagles merch. The Eagles sent her workout shorts, t-shirts, baseball caps, and a varsity jacket with the Eagles logo. It was the Eagles' owner Leonard Tose’s idea to send the jacket. Lady Diana appreciated the gift and even sent Edelstein a thank you note and mentioned that she had been using the merchandise.

Iconic Lady Diana green jackets available for $144.30

The Princess of Wales was spotted wearing the varsity jacket outside of London’s Wetherby Prep School where her kids studied. While the jacket itself became popular merchandise, some of the pictures of Lady Diana in the jacket have also become merchandise material.

The iconic green jacket is available in the price range of $144.30 to $240.00 on e-commerce store Etsy. Meanwhile, fans can also purchase merchandise with the photo of Diana wearing the jacket printed on them on Etsy.

During a special edition of Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN in October 2023, Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, shared the story behind her clothing preferences.

"Diana always craved the normalcy," Wharfe said."By being a member of the royal family, that was almost impossible. Neither William or Harry, when they were kids, wanted their mother to sort of dress in her finery, take them to school. So all Diana would do is be as casual as possible."

"Diana loved to be different, this was her style," Wharfe added. "It sort of showed the public and her children that she was a normal mother in a style that people liked."