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Sian Williams Reveals She Fainted Off-Camera During 2004 Diana Memorial Broadcast

The former BBC presenter shares the account to support a new book on managing anxiety.

Overview

  • Williams recounts collapsing from stress during BBC coverage of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain opening in Hyde Park in 2004.
  • She says long hours in a hot marquee and a lost video feed left her with nothing to say before her speech faltered and her vision blurred.
  • Producers switched to royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell, so viewers did not see the fall, and she later returned to air after eating custard creams.
  • She links the episode to decades of anxiety and says it helped prompt her retraining as a chartered counselling psychologist in 2021.
  • The recollection, shared with The Times as she promotes The Power of Anxiety, concerns a high-profile event attended by senior royals including then-Prince Charles, William, Harry and Queen Elizabeth II.