Why William & Harry AGREED TO BE FILMED
THE ROYAL BROTHERS SHARED SOME MAGIC MEMORIES OF DIANA
It has been hailed as one of the most candid and moving insights into the life of Princess Diana and how her tragic death affected her sons.
The documentary Diana,
Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, in which Princes William and Harry shared deeply personal, never-beforerevealed memories of their beloved mum, tugged on millions of heartstrings when it screened last week.
The fact the brothers opened up so much about the mother they lost in a Paris car crash 20 years ago this August, when they were just 15 and 12, not only came as something of a surprise to the documentary team, but to William and Harry themselves.
Executive producer Nicolas Kent and director Ashley Gething say that before they sat down with William (35) and Harry (32) to shoot the documentary, the pair warned them they might not have a lot to share.
“They prefaced their interviews by saying, ‘We don’t actually have that many memories of our mum,’” Nicolas revealed. “One of the side effects of grief and bereavement is that memories kind of get suppressed or obliterated, so I don’t think they knew, and we certainly didn’t know until we began the interview, that they could be so candid.
“But quite quickly, when we began the interview, you could almost begin to see the memories surface.”
The key to unlocking those memories was going through photo albums Diana had compiled herself for her sons. The albums had been put into storage because the brothers couldn’t face looking at them, but it was their idea to get them out when they sat down to discuss plans for the documentary.
“What was great was that a lot of those memories ended up being incredibly joyous,” says Nicolas, who filmed the scenes with William and Harry at Kensington Palace back in January. “They talked about love, they talked about hugs... It felt like the first iteration of them discovering a really deep set of memories.”
In the film, Harry says to William about the photo albums, “Part of me never really wanted to look at them and part of me was waiting to find the right time where we could sit down and look at them together.”
One of the most poignant moments came when Harry looks at a photo of Diana hugging him and reminisces about how it felt to be wrapped in her arms.
“She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible,” he says. “And being as short as I was then, there was no escape, you were there and you were there for as long as she wanted to hold you. Even talking about it now, I can feel the hugs that she used to give us and I miss that. I miss that feeling, I miss that part of a family, I miss having that mother... to be able to give you those hugs and give you that compassion that I think everybody needs.”
The brothers both opened up about how they have coped since Diana died, and since filming the documentary,
they have continued to speak out about how losing her has affected their mental health. No subject was off limits when it came to making the film, say the documentary makers.
“Obviously they talked very carefully about whether they should make this film,” says Ashley. “Having decided to make it, they did want it to be a personal film. There were no parameters, rules or regulations set at all about what should be put in it or what should be left out. They were very courageous in opening up so much and so publicly, especially given the complex circumstances of their mother’s death and the media’s involvement in it.”
Harry admits that discussing Diana the way they do on camera was a first for them. “This is the first time the two of us have ever spoken about her as a mother. It was arguably probably a little bit too raw until this point. It’s still raw.”
In the film, William explains their reasons for agreeing to do it. “I think Harry and I feel very strongly that we want to celebrate her life and this is a tribute from her sons to her. We want her legacy to live on in our work and we feel this is an appropriate way of doing that – to remind not only the people who knew her, but also, we have to remember that this is 20 years ago now since she died and there are people who don’t even know about her.”
But it was very evident just how raw those emotions are as William stood before a small number of journalists, to introduce the film at its first official screening at Kensington Palace. William rubbed his hands together anxiously before admitting, “This is possibly the most nervous I’ve ever been.” For a man whose wedding day was watched by an audience estimated at two billion, it spoke volumes as to how difficult the young prince finds speaking openly about his mother’s tragic passing in front of the media.
“It’s one thing doing a documentary like this, it’s another thing standing in front of all you guys, explaining about something very personal. Nonetheless, I think it is important that I am here to do that,” he revealed.
After breaking the tension in the room and getting a few laughs, William appeared to relax a little more as he explained more about his – and Harry’s – motivation for taking part in the film.
“You have to remember that there are people who don’t even know about her. There are 25-year-olds who have just heard the odd snippet about her, so this is introducing her to a new audience as well.”
William said it was intended to “remind people of the person she was and what she was like as a mother – the warmth and the humour”. As well as this film, they have spoken to several other media and film outlets about Diana to mark the 20th anniversary of her death, but now they feel the time has come to put the subject to rest, William said.
“Harry and I felt it was an appropriate time to open up a bit more about our mother. We haven’t really spoken so publicly about her... and we felt this was the right time to do it.
But we won’t be doing this again.”
Ashley says he and Nicolas made the film hoping the princes would think of it as something they could “show their own children to show them who their grandmother was. What we’ve tried to do with this documentary is to tell the story of Princess Diana through the eyes of the two people who knew her and loved her most. It is a sort of love letter to their mum.”
‘ This is the first time the two of us have ever spoken about her as a mother’