DIANA PORTRAIT OF A DEVOTED MOTHER WITH BABY HARRY ...TAKEN BY PRINCE WILLIAM
Family pictures from Diana’s private albums help tell princes’ story of life with their mother
PRINCES William and Harry have released fresh pictures to give an intimate portrait of their relationship with their mother Princess Diana ahead of a landmark documentary tonight.
These previously unseen family photos come from albums the Duke of Cambridge and Harry only recently discovered.
“When we found these photo albums recently, 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,” Harry said.
Speaking on ITV’s Diana, Our Mother: Her Life And Legacy, 32-year-old Harry recalled the matching outfits he and William were often dressed in by the princess.
One photo, published for the first time today, shows the brothers dressed as policemen with toy helmets, ties and belts with walkie-talkies.
Harry strikes a confident pose with hands on hips while William squints more uncertainly towards the photographer, thought to be their mother.
William, 35, has previously admitted that one of his first ambitions was to become a policeman. As the younger brother, Harry was often required to dress to match his elder sibling.
He said: “One thing I would love to ask her now because I genuinely think that she got satisfaction out of dressing myself and William up in the most bizarre outfits, normally matching.
“It was weird shorts and you know like, little sort of shiny shoes with the old clip on. Looking back at the photos it just makes me laugh. I just think, ‘How could you do that to us?’
“And then funnily enough, we got to the age when William would turn round and go, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous. I’m the older brother, why do I have to be dressed the same as him?’
“And I’m sort of sitting there going, ‘Hang on a second, if you’re going to dress differently, I’m not going to be the only person dressed like this – this is just ridiculous’.”
Despite his awkwardness, Harry confessed that he will probably do the same to his children. Laughing, he said: “So I like to think that she had great fun in dressing us up. I’m sure that wasn’t it, but I sure as hell am going to dress my kids up the same way.”
A second photograph, also published for the first time, shows Diana and eight-month-old Harry on the deck of the Royal Yacht Britannia.
It appears to have been taken by the then two-year-old William in May 1985 when the brothers joined their parents on the last five days of a three-week tour of Italy.
The brothers have given extensive interviews for tonight’s documentary which also features Diana’s brother Earl Spencer and friends such as Sir Elton John.
William was 15 and Harry just 12 when their mother was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Both expressed their regret that they rushed to get off the phone because they were having such a good time playing with their cousins at Balmoral when she rang them for the last time that day.
William said: “Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know, ‘See you later’. If I’d known now obviously what was going to happen I wouldn’t have been so blase about it and everything else.”
Harry recalled when it was his turn to speak, saying: “It was her speaking from Paris. I can’t really necessarily remember what I said but all I do remember is probably regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.”
Asked how he keeps Diana’s memory alive for his children Prince George, four, and twoyear-old Princess Charlotte, William replied: “I think, constantly talking about Granny Diana. So we’ve got more photos up round the house now of her and we talk about her.
“It’s hard because obviously Catherine didn’t know her, so she cannot really provide that level of detail. So I do, regularly putting George or Charlotte to bed, talk about her and just try
‘It’s important Charlotte and George know who she was and that she existed’
and remind them that there are two grandmothers. There were two grandmothers in their lives and so it’s important that they know who she was and that she existed.”
William and Harry, who have also given interviews to a BBC team making a documentary about the days between Diana’s death and funeral, thought the 20th anniversary of her death was the right time to speak candidly.
William said: “We won’t be doing this again. We won’t speak as openly or publicly about her again because we feel hopefully this film will provide the other side from close family friends you might not have heard before, from those who knew her best and from those who want to protect her memory, and want to remind people of the person that she was.”
The Queen and other members of the Royal Family, including Prince Charles, were consulted for the programme. But there is little mention of either, apart from a friend saying how worried the monarch was about Diana’s unhappiness and the boys describing their unhappiness at having to travel between their parents after their separation in 1992 and divorce in 1996.
Diana, Our Mother: Her Life And Legacy, airs on ITV tonight at 9pm.
THERE will be few dry eyes when Princes William and Harry open their hearts on TV tonight to mark the 20th anniversary of their mother’s tragic death. The pain of their loss is still etched deep and that speaks volumes about the caring, loving mother Diana was. She would have been so proud of the way her boys have turned into men.