RICHARD KAY: As Wills and Kate recreate THAT Taj Mahal photo today, how the Prince hopes to lay Diana's misery at rest

Of all the hundreds of thousands of photographs of Princess Diana, it is among the most famous — not the most iconic, perhaps, but certainly the most significant.

For five poignant minutes, the Princess sat by herself on a bench in front of the Taj Mahal, India’s shimmering monument to love and one of the seven wonders of the modern world. 

The pictures were transmitted round the globe — and the message they relayed was both symbolic and eloquent. It said: ‘I am alone and I am unloved.’

See more news from Kate Middleton and her tour with Prince William in India

The picture that was transmitted round the globe: Princess Diana was memorably pictured on a bench in front of the Indian landmark in 1992 as her marriage to Prince Charles unravelled

Those of us who were there that day in February 1992 saw it as public affirmation that the fairytale marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales was all but over.

The bench she was sitting on was, after all, the very seat on which some 12 years earlier a bachelor Charles, who was courting the young Lady Diana Spencer but had not yet proposed, had rested, vowing to return one day with his bride.

Like Diana he had been moved by the beauty of the place. But it was a promise he never kept. By the time they finally made it to India as man and wife, the couple were barely on speaking terms — and Charles’s absence that day handed Diana the ammunition for the opening shot in a bitter and acrimonious break-up.

Twenty-four years on and that celebrated stone seat is being readied for another royal visit. Today, Diana’s son Prince William will follow in his mother’s footsteps — and unlike his father, he will bring his wife.

For William and Kate the moment presents a uniquely royal conundrum. Should they sit, as Diana did, gazing reflectively at the white marble temple, or will they choose to stand? 

Will they pose surrounded by the entourage that inevitably accompanies such high-profile visitors, or will they try to emulate the Princess of Wales whose hangers-on were fleetingly pushed out of camera shot?

After her reverie, Diana was enigmatic when she was asked what she thought of the Taj. ‘Very healing,’ she said. What did she mean, we asked? ‘Work that out for yourself,’ she replied.

In fact, the monument was anything but ‘healing’ for the Princess. It symbolised her misery and her despair that the marriage which had begun so brightly and with such optimism just 11 years earlier was at an end.

For William and Kate, the encounter is the polar opposite. They are four years into a union that has brought two children and nothing but contentment and happiness. Yet some have suggested that including the Taj Mahal on their itinerary risks stirring up ghosts of the past and ensuring they never escape the shadows of Diana.

Twenty-four years on and that celebrated stone seat is being readied for another royal visit. Today, Diana’s son Prince William (pictured near Paro, Bhutan) will follow in his mother’s footsteps — and unlike his father, he will bring his wife

Kate, remember, already wears the Princess’s engagement ring, while her daughter Princess Charlotte’s middle name is Diana and her christening was at the same Sandringham church where Diana was baptised in 1961.

But quite apart from not wishing to offend their hosts by declining to visit the temple — where all overseas VIPs are expected to pay homage — William sees the trip as a unique opportunity.

Whereas Diana’s presence symbolised a broken Royal Family, William and Kate hope theirs will convey a very different image: of a monarchy now happier, more at ease with itself and more secure. ‘It was at the top of their list of places to go in India,’ says an aide. 

Cannily, the Prince sees it as a chance to respect the enduring image of his mother’s Taj Mahal moment — yet confine it to history.

In the aide’s words: ‘William is very protective of his mother’s memory and he and Kate particularly want to be seen happy together in a place where Diana was sad.’

By the time royal planners drew up the schedule of Charles and Diana’s visit to India, it was clear there would only be the most superficial attempt at togetherness.

Separate itineraries had been compiled but there was still a hope among officials that they would come together for one visit — to the Taj Mahal. 

Had they done so it would have allowed them to make a positive — if false — statement about their marriage. The absence of Charles saddened those who even then would have rejoiced at seeing him and Diana sharing such precious moments.

Kate (shown here at the Taj Tashi Hotel in Thimpu, Bhutan), remember, already wears the Princess’s engagement ring, while her daughter Princess Charlotte’s middle name is Diana and her christening was at the same Sandringham church where Diana was baptised in 1961

But by early 1992, Charles was beyond caring, feeling that to have accompanied her would have been hypocritical and that the whole experience would have been too excruciating for them both.

Former police bodyguard Ken Wharfe, who accompanied the Princess across the sub-continent, recalls: ‘You have to remember it was a joint tour and therefore there was an expectation that they would do some things together. 

'But the Prince of Wales didn’t want to know. He was very p***** off that wherever Diana went, the media went, too, so his philosophy was summed up as “what’s the point?” ’

So while Diana travelled to Agra and the Taj, Charles remained 200 miles away in Delhi to address a forum of industrialists.

He couldn’t resist a caustic aside, telling his guests: ‘A wiser prince than I would have opted for a visit to the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra, which I believe is where some of the greatest pundits of the Press seem to think I ought to be anyway, rather than making a greater fool of myself here.’

According to Wharfe, the uncertainty about the Taj visit meant that plans for a photo-call with the Princess were only sketchy.

‘It was clear she would have to do something, this was the place where dignitaries had to come and it would have been impolite for her not to have been photographed.’

Some might be surprised that the final stop on William and Kate’s triumphant tour across India and Bhutan should be the place which was so central to his parents’ unravelling marriage. (The couple are pictured walking through Kaziranga National Park)

The marble mausoleum was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his beloved Queen Mumtaz, ‘the Lady of the Taj’, his wife for 19 years. He was heartbroken when she died in childbirth in 1631 after bearing 14 children.

Romantics like to visit it under moonlight. Diana arrived in the morning before the sun was too high and the crowds of trippers, hawkers and beggars was too big.

Even so, the retinue of hangers-on threatened to swamp the occasion. ‘I remember Diana saying to me: “What shall I do?”,’ says Wharfe. ‘I saw the seat and said: “You better sit there,” and just for a split second we managed to get all the entourage out of the camera shot.’

Wharfe — who much to the amusement of the Princess earlier had slipped and fallen on a flight of stairs inside the building — soon found himself thinking on his feet again.

BBC newsreader Simon McCoy, who was then working for Sky, asked Diana what she thought of the tomb. Turning to Wharfe, the Princess whispered: ‘What do I say, Ken?’

The ex-policeman tells me: ‘I just said the first thing that came into my head. “Say it’s a very healing experience.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

‘Afterwards, as we left, she was pleased, but she had no idea that it would come to be seen as the start of the PR war with her husband.

‘Had he wanted to, the Prince could have turned the whole thing on its head simply by going with her to the Taj Mahal but he no longer cared what people thought.

‘I remember her saying to me: “Charles will go bonkers about it.” ’

The tensions of that Indian tour were to become even more unforgivingly obvious just three days later, on Valentine’s Day no less, when the royal party had descended on Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Charles was playing in a polo match and Diana was due to present the cup to her husband — with a kiss. She initially refused. After pressure from aides she reluctantly agreed to do it — but she had the last laugh.

As Charles made to kiss her, she inclined her head, forcing him to kiss air and launching a flurry of headlines about the kiss that missed. The Prince was furious that Diana had made him look a fool and the tour ended with the two silently ignoring each another.

The marriage limped on for another ten months before the couple formally separated in December 1992.

Some might be surprised that the final stop on William and Kate’s triumphant tour across India and Bhutan should be the place which was so central to his parents’ unravelling marriage.

But for William, it is about laying the ghosts of the past to rest.

Some might be surprised that the final stop on William and Kate’s triumphant tour across India and Bhutan should be the place which was so central to his parents’ unravelling marriage. But for William, it is about laying the ghosts of the past to rest