Treasured moments
Of all her prestigious titles, there was none the Princess cared more deeply about than that of ‘mum’. Warm, tender-hearted and demonstrative, Diana cherished her sons – and they adored her
When it came to royal motherhood, Diana not only broke the mould, she smashed it into pieces. She was determined to parent her adored boys William and Harry in her own loving and tactile way, unconstrained by protocol or tradition. She was also fiercely determined to give them the happy and secure childhood she herself had missed out on.
“I want to bring them up with security,” she once said. “I hug my children to death. I always feed them love and affection; it’s so important.”
Diana was just 21 years old when she gave birth to William on June 21, 1982. Her pregnancy was plagued by morning sickness, she endured a difficult labour and suffered from crippling postnatal depression after William’s birth – but despite the travails, from the moment the young heir was placed in her arms, Diana was smitten. Happy-go-lucky Harry was born just two years later on September 15, 1984, after an easier, nine-hour labour.
“I live for my sons. I would be lost without them,” Diana once said.
As the years progressed, her closeness to the boys she referred to as “mini-tornadoes” was obvious. Perhaps one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking pictures of Diana the mum was when she greeted William and Harry on the deck of the royal yacht Britannia in Toronto in 1991. Her arms thrown wide, Diana was clearly ecstatic to be reunited with her sons – and their happy smiles showed that the feeling was patently mutual.
Royal author Judy Wade says this kind of interaction was typical of Diana. “Sources within Kensington Palace would tell me, ‘Every morning the boys would run in their pyjamas into her bedroom and she’d have her arms open wide to hug them’,” Judy says.
Diana was determined to raise the young princes not only as royals but as “normal” young boys, too. “She made sure that they experienced things like going to the cinema, queuing up to buy Mcdonald’s, going to amusement parks, those sorts of things that were experiences they could share with their friends,” her former chief of staff Patrick Jephson says.
She began introducing them to the idea of their royal duties from a young age, too. “It was a very difficult dilemma for Diana to prepare them for the very distinctive, unique life that they have to lead, and she did it very cleverly,” he adds.
Diana saw it as her duty to raise boys who would become exceptional young men – royal or otherwise. “I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties,” she once said.
That Diana was lost to her boys before they’d reached adulthood made her passing almost unbearably tragic.