Elton: Harry inherited her ability to put people at ease

SIR Elton John has paid tribute to Princess Diana’s groundbreaking campaign work and told Harry he has inherited her ability to put people at ease.

The 70-year-old singersongwriter-pianist, pictured left with Diana, hails her work to help HIV/Aids patients in tonight’s ITV documentary featuring major interviews with her sons.

William and Harry wanted to highlight how their mother had changed perceptions. The show recalls how, by shaking hands with a patient at Britain’s first Aids unit, at London’s Middlesex Hospital in 1987, she smashed the notion that the virus was passed by touch.

Sir Elton said: “It was considered to be a gay disease and for someone who was within the Royal Family and who was a woman, and who was straight, to have someone care from the other side, was an incredible gift.

“Look at her face. In every photo there’s a positive, wonderful smile. Also she had that incredible ability, which he kind of inherited – and I told him that, and he said thanks very much – to make people feel at ease and make them feel that everything’s going to be all right.

“I haven’t experienced many people in my life who have that ability, but she could walk into a room of people and make them feel as if everything was great.”

The programme also covers her work on other issues, including landmines and homelessness.