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How Princess Diana, Honorary Eagles Fan, Got Her Iconic Jacket

If Princess Diana was alive today it is safe to say she would be cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s Super Bowl. This is how she became linked with the team.

Everybody’s looking forward to the main event this weekend: Rihanna’s Super Bowl Half Time show, of course. But with the Kansas City Chiefs set to face the Philadelphia Eagles, one particularly iconic Eagles fan comes to mind: Diana, Princess of Wales, street style goddess and, while she was alive, a frequent rocker of a memorable, Eagles jacket.

The New York Post has the novel history behind the Princess’s surprising sartorial choice, which has always raised a bunch of questions: Was she secretly an American football fan? Where did she get the jacket?

Marnie Schneider, the daughter of a former owner of the Eagles, told CBS Philadelphia that Diana had connected with Jackie Edelstein, a former statistician for the football team, at the funeral for Diana’s friend Grace Kelly, who eventually became Princess of Monaco but was born and raised in Philly.

Diana and Edelstein got to talking, Schneider said, and Diana shared that silver and green, the Eagles colors, were her favorites. “[Edelstein] said, ‘I want to send her some T-shirts,’ and my grandfather said, ‘She’s the princess! You cant send her just T-shirts,” Schneider said. “We gotta do something special for this woman.’”

They sent her a gift box that included the jacket instead, and the rest is history. “What does a royal mom wear to pick up her kids from school?” I mused last August. “Most royal moms wouldn’t even bother to do it themselves, but Diana rocked the receiving line in a Philadelphia Eagles jacket, of all things. Where did she even get it?” Question answered.

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Helen HolmesCulture Reporter

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