Tell us about her, princes beg charity chiefs
PRINCE Harry grilled chiefs of his late mother’s favourite charities yesterday by pleading: “Tell me a story about my Mum.”
Along with his brother Prince William and his wife Kate, Harry prompted a round of reminiscences about the woman they all missed as they visited the White Garden – a memorial space within the existing sunken garden at Kensington Palace that has been decorated with white foliage and flowers to mark 20 years since her tragic death.
The Princes and the Duchess of Cambridge were meeting representatives of the eight bodies closest to Diana’s heart in the gardens of her former home.
Sheltering under umbrellas, they admired white roses, lilies, gladioli and cosmos all planted to represent her life and style.
The garden has been open to the public since the spring.
Diana would regularly chat with the gardeners, asking about the ever-changing displays.
And yesterday the Royals met current head gardener Sean Harkin and Graham Dillamore, who knew the Princess when he worked there.
English National Ballet director Tamara Rojo told them their mother’s fundraising made sure many hit productions were possible, adding: “That’s something we celebrate.”
William said: “She loved dancing, she was a fantastic dancer.
“We’ve been going through her music collection recently and there’s some quite eclectic stuff. She was elated by the skill.
“We’ve got plenty of pictures. I remember her showing me ballet shoes she had been given and she was so proud of them.”
Listening
Kate, 35, chipped in that twoyear-old Princess Charlotte is now learning to dance, adding: “She absolutely loves it.”
William was told the ENB runs a My First Ballet programme of short classic shows and said: “We will definitely have to come.”
Meeting Great Ormond Street Hospital representatives, he recalled how his mother stayed with him there when, aged nine, he had 24 stitches after a golfing accident. “I got looked after extremely well,” he said. He told Cally Palmer, chief executive of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Diana had been “so uplifted” by meeting patients and “trying to cheer them up”.
Ms Palmer said he was “so like her” in manner. He replied: “We try to follow her example in being ourselves and listening. It’s amazing what listening can do and she was a good listener.”
He also apologised for the weather, joking stoically: “I guess it’s a garden, it needs the rain.”
Kenneth Rutherford, cofounder of the Landmine Survivors Network, spent three extraordinary days with Diana in Bosnia shortly before she died.
He said: “She was just the most remarkable woman, the way she absorbed the pain of the survivors and the victims.
“We met people of all faiths, genders and political divides and she wasn’t fazed by any of it.
“We couldn’t find anyone to support us at that point and she just embraced it despite the very public criticism.”
He told reporters: “Harry is very uncomplicated, just like his mother. His first question was, ‘Did my mother make a difference?’ and I told him, ‘You bet’.”