EXCLUSIVE: Real-Life Story of Crazed Princess Diana Fan Who Mortgaged Her Home for a Fourth Time to Purchase Items Belonging to the Late Royal — 'I Feel So Blessed to Preserve Her Legacy'
Princess Diana's biggest fan continues to do everything possible to own all of her stuff.
Aug. 11 2025, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
A chance encounter at age 12 with Princess Diana set Renae Plant on her lifelong mission to assemble a veritable museum of the late style icon's most memorable outfits, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Plant mortgaged her home for the fourth time to secure 35 items connected to Diana at the recent Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection sale in Los Angeles, held by Julien's Auctions. She bid nearly $700,000 on a single dress: the famous Caring Dress, which the People's Princess wore during her second Australian tour in 1988.
'She Was So Beautiful'
Queen Elizabeth once gifted Diana the pearl earrings now displayed in the Princess Diana Museum.
Plant's love for the late princess began with their run-in during Diana's first Australian tour in 1983. Renae skipped school to go to a factory in Yandina, Queensland, Australia, where Diana and then-Prince Charles were touring.
Renae was shocked when Diana saw her, made a beeline, and shook her hand.
"I was so enamored when I saw her ... she was so beautiful," recalled Plant, now 54.
Mesmerized, the young girl ducked under a barricade and walked behind a procession of guards and ladies in waiting. It was then she noticed Diana had dropped a clay platypus someone had given her.
"I ran over to the police and said, 'Lady Di dropped this,'" Plant shared. "He looked at me and said: 'She must have dropped this to give to you.' That tiny platypus sent me on a trajectory I could never have imagined."
About 2,730 Pieces Of Items
Harper's Bazaar featured Diana in an iconic dress now preserved in the royal collection.
All of the Diana items Plant has acquired over the years can be seen online at The Princess & The Platypus Foundation's Princess Diana Museum (www.theprincessandtheplatypus.org), named after Plant's run-in with the royal.
Today, the museum contains "tens and tens of millions" of dollars' worth of items.
The roughly 2,730 pieces include the 1991 Versace dress Diana wore on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and a pair of stunning diamond-and-pearl earrings given to the princess by Queen Elizabeth herself.
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A 1986 Gulf Tour gown worn by Diana now belongs to the Princess Diana Museum.
Plant's recent auction win also includes the famed Falcon Dress, a custom cream silk crepe embroidered evening gown designed by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana on her 1986 Gulf Tour.
The Diana devotee is glad to have added the items to her collection.
"I feel so blessed to be able to preserve Diana's legacy," Plant said. "I truly believe she was looking over us. She knew those pieces had to end up in the Princess Diana Museum. Angels were looking over me, and I know she was one of them for sure."
