Princess Diana's personally-owned- and -worn Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt given to her by business magnate Richard Branson, which Diana later presented to her longtime personal trainer, Jenni Rivett. The dark blue cotton/polyester sweatshirt, no size but likely medium/large, features a screen-printed image of the Virgin Atlantic ‘Flying Lady’ logo with white cursive text: “Fly Atlantic.” Included with the sweatshirt is a small 4 x 2.75 gift tag bearing an ANS from Princess Diana, which reads: “Dearest Jenni, Lots of love from, Diana, x.” In fine condition, with expected wear from use.
The recipient of the sweatshirt, Jenni Rivett, served as the personal trainer to Princess Diana for over seven years. In a 2018 interview with the Yahoo! series The Royal Box, Rivett recounted Diana’s decision to simplify her workout outfits: ‘Every single session all the media were outside camped with their stepladders, and cameras and lenses and everything. For her she just found it so incredibly, 'why are they so interested in me when there is more important things to worry about in the world.’ It wasn't her that asked for all this. I remember one of her strategies was that she was going to wear the same Virgin Active sweatshirt every single session.’
The sweatshirt is accompanied by two letters of provenance from Rivett, with one reading, in part: “This sweatshirt was given to HRH by Sir Richard Branson. It became her most worn top on her regular visits to the gym. She felt there were far more important issues to focus on in the world then her gym attire and therefore decided that wearing the famous Virgin sweatshirt to every session, would be a good way to stop the media frenzy! A few months before her untimely death she called me to say she had left a few sweatshirts for me. Amongst them, this one—which I have now decided to part with.”
