Princess Diana died 25 years ago. To this day, Prince William and Prince Harry ensure that she will not be forgotten.
On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident at the age of 36. Her sons Prince William (40) and Prince Harry (37) were 15 and 12 years old at the time. The pictures of the two brothers behind their mother Diana’s coffin went around the world in 1997.
Today, 25 years later, the two princes have long since started a family themselves. However, they both tirelessly uphold the memory of their beloved mother.
Prince William in the footsteps of his parents
So Prince William made his Kate (40) a very special marriage proposal. In October 2010 he proposed to the now Duchess of Cambridge in Kenya with Diana’s sapphire ring. Prince Charles (73) used the same ring for his proposal to Diana.
When it comes to raising his children, William follows his mother’s example. In 1983, Diana and Charles took Prince William, who was only nine months old at the time, on a trip to Australia, breaking an iron rule. So far, the royal offspring has always stayed in their British homeland instead of going on long journeys. William and his wife Kate also traveled Down Under in 2014 with their then eight-month-old son Prince George (9).
The name of her second child is also a tribute to Diana. Princess Charlotte’s full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Lilibet (1), the daughter of Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan (41), was christened Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
“She was the best mother in the world”
In 2017, the documentary “Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy” was released, in which Prince Harry and Prince William commemorate their late mother. “She was our mother. She is still our mother. And of course, as any son would say, she was the best mother in the world,” Harry said.
In 2019, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan shared a photo of son Archie’s (3) feet on Mother’s Day at Instagram. In the background is a splendor of forget-me-nots – Princess Diana’s favorite flower. Illustrations of the plant also appear in Meghan’s children’s book “The Bench”.
They announced on Valentine’s Day 2021 that Harry and Meghan were expecting a second child, daughter Lilibet. On the same day 37 years ago, Diana announced her pregnancy with Prince Harry.
Princess Charlotte: “Dad misses you”
Mother’s Day is a special celebration for Prince William and his family. Were in March 2021 on the official Instagram account read moving lines from William and Kate. “Today can be particularly difficult for anyone who has experienced a bereavement,” the post said. They also posted Mother’s Day cards that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis (4) make every year for their grandmother Diana. “Dear Grandma Diana, I’m thinking of you on Mother’s Day, I love you very much, Dad misses you,” wrote Charlotte in her card.
Prince Harry and his family also honor Diana on British Mother’s Day. In 2021, the Duke of Sussex had flowers laid at his mother’s grave on the Althorp estate in Northamptonshire. Because the 37-year-old and his family live in California, he was unable to visit the grave himself.
Although his son Archie is still very small, Harry regularly shows him pictures of Princess Diana, as he explained on the “Today Show” in 2022. “I don’t tell him everything that happened. But I certainly tell him: ‘This is Grandma Diana’,” said the prince.
The legacy of Diana’s charity work lives on
Princess Diana dedicated her heart to her charity work during her lifetime. In total, she is said to have worked with 100 different charity organizations. Prince Harry, who spent part of his gap year in Africa, founded his own charity, Sentebale, which takes care of impoverished children and people living with HIV/AIDS in Botswana and Lesotho. The name Sentebale translates to forget-me-not, a homage to Diana’s favorite flower.
It says on the Sentebale website among other things, that Harry uses the work in Africa to “understand” his mother’s work better and “to find out if there is a way to continue her legacy in the fight against AIDS”.
Prince William, Duchess Kate and Prince Harry have been leading for several years the “Heads Together” campaign in the fight against the stigma of mental illness. With fundraisers, the royals try to enable new services for mentally ill people. Projects implemented so far include a service hotline that people in need can contact, psychological support in schools, workplaces and the military.
Diana also championed mental health at the time when she made it public that she suffered from depression after the birth of Prince William.
Improving the world with Diana’s vision
The Diana Award has been presented in Great Britain since 1999. The award honors young people between the ages of nine and 25 who are particularly socially committed or who do humanitarian work. The award ceremony was originally launched by British ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown (71). Both William and Harry are regulars at the Diana Awards ceremony. The prize aims to motivate young people to make the world a better place.
Diana would have celebrated her 60th birthday on July 1, 2021. To pay tribute to her, Prince Harry and Prince William unveiled a statue of her mother surrounded by three children that day. The overall picture is intended to honor Diana’s humanitarian work.