Avanti Reddy was only 4 years old and dancing the Lambadi tribal dance when a woman dressed in white approached and lifted her off the ground.
It was February 14, 1992, at a school in Hyderabad, India. Princess Diana sat her on her lap in front of the cameras, noticed that the girl had a slight cold and, gently, wiped her nose with her own handkerchief. Then she told her something Avanti never forgot: ‘I don’t have a daughter, so today you are my daughter.’ Weeks later, a framed and signed photograph of that moment arrived by mail.
More than three decades have passed. Diana died in 1997, when Avanti was only ten years old and learned the news while she was on tour in Belgium. Today, at 37, Avanti still keeps that photo as the most treasured memory of her childhood.
