I tell my children about granny Diana: Prince William says his mother would have 'loved Charlotte and George to bits'

Princess Diana once set up a go-kart track around Prince Charles's flowerbeds
She also let William and Harry jump into a swimming pool fully clothed
William said he speaks with his children George and Charlotte about Diana
He said he thinks about her constantly and feels her spirit beside him

Published: 00:20 BST, 24 July 2017 | Updated: 02:53 BST, 24 July 2017

e-mail

220

View
comments

For Diana, nothing was too much trouble for the boys she adored, from exotic holidays to elaborate treats.

Her reasoning was simple: So much of their lives was infused with the rituals of their role as 'heir and spare' to the throne that she was determined to provide an outlet to them.

This might mean setting up an impromptu go-kart track round Prince Charles's precious flower-beds at Highgrove, or letting William and Harry jump fully clothed into the swimming pool along with their bodyguards.

Princess Diana once arranged supermodels Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford to show up at Kensington Palace in September 1996 as Prince William came home from school showing a magical sense of mischief

Like so many devoted mothers, Diana lived much of her life through her children

But for William nothing quite summed up her magical sense of mischief like the day in September 1996 when he came home from school to find the most glamorous and famous women in the world, supermodels Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford, at the top of the stairs at Kensington Palace.

For the blushing young teenager, it was the fulfilment of every schoolboy's fantasy.

The encounter with the models, whose pictures he had pinned up on the wall of his study at Eton, remains a powerful memory for the prince and proof of the sense of mischief of the mother who arranged it all.

How very different from his father's upbringing. By the time he was 14, the most exciting thing Prince Charles got up to was swigging a cherry brandy in a pub during term-time at Gordonstoun. Recounting how he reacted in front of the supermodels, William says: 'I pretty much fell down the stairs on the way up.'

The fact is that, like so many devoted mothers, Diana lived much of her life through her children.

Harry understands that devotion and sacrifice very clearly. It was mixed, too, with her own sense of the importance that childhood was a time of innocence and joy. For Harry remarks: 'Our mother was a total kid through and through.' She possessed a 'crazy laugh [which] was just pure happiness.'

Prince Harry revealed his mother wrote the smuttiest greetings cards

Above all, she led her life on the principle of the importance of having a free spirit. That is something she has bestowed on her sons. 'She was one of the naughtiest parents,' Harry says. Greetings cards, the smuttier the better, were another Diana favourite.

'She was a massive card writer,' says William. 'She loved the rudest cards you could imagine. Usually she found something very embarrassing, a very funny card and then wrote very nice stuff inside.

'But I dared not open it in case the teachers or anyone else in the class had seen it.' It was all part of her determination as a mother that they enjoyed as normal a life as possible.

But there was, according to William, another purpose beyond the pleasure-seeking moments.

According to William, Diana understood there was a real life outside of Palace walls

'She understood there was a real life outside of Palace walls and she wanted us to see it from a very young age,' he tells the documentary, recalling visits to The Passage, a centre for the homeless in Westminster when he was only 12.

What is so remarkable about the film is the profound impact the princess has in influencing their lives to this day.

In one of the plaintive parts of the documentary, both princes speak of their mother's presence in their lives long after her death.

William says his mother's spirit is constantly at his side. 'There are not many days that go by I don't think of her.

'I have a smile every now and again when someone says something, and I think, 'that's exactly what she would have said', or, 'she would have enjoyed that comment.'

'So they always live with you, people you lose, like that. And my mother lives with me every day. I give thanks that I was lucky enough to be her son and I got to know her for the 15 years that I did.

William revealed he has spoken to his children George and Charlotte about Granny Diana

'She gave us the right tools and has prepared us well for life in the best way she could, not, obviously, knowing what was going to happen.' Until this year, many feared Diana had been airbrushed from the royal story, an inconvenient reminder of unhappier times.

But since the beginning of 2017 both princes have spoken out about her continuing impact on their lives. They have commissioned a statue and in their different ways they tell how they dealt with the loss.

Quite why it has taken two decades to do it is not clear but the boys hint at a possible explanation when they talk about how they coped with their grief.

William says he knew his mother would not want him to be upset. 'I kept myself busy which is good and bad but allows you to …get through that initial shock.'

This period lasted between five and seven years by which time William was 22 and meeting Kate Middleton at St Andrews University.

Harry grew up thinking that 'not having a mum was normal', adding: 'The ten years I was in the Army I just sort of dug my head in the sand and it was just white noise.' Now, William says he is instilling those memories of his mother in his own children. Indeed, it is fascinating that the prince uses the phrase 'Granny Diana' more than once.

Her first grandchild, Prince George, wasn't born until more than 16 years after her death. William says he talks often to his own children, George and Charlotte, about 'Granny Diana' who, he says, would have 'loved them to bits'.

'I think constantly about Granny Diana,' he says. 'So we've got more photos up around the house now… it's hard because Catherine didn't know her, so cannot provide that level of detail.'

So at bedtime for George and Charlotte, he likes to talk to them about Diana.

William says the most important message he takes from his mother is the importance of a child's first few years.

'I want to make as much time and effort with George and Charlotte as I can because I realise these early years particularly are crucial for children, having seen, you know, what she did for us.'

Granny Diana would definitely be very proud.

William: I felt she was there for me at my wedding to Kate

Prince William felt his mother’s presence at his marriage to Kate Middleton, he revealed in the documentary.

Diana remains in his thoughts on a daily basis and provides strength and inspiration when he needs her, he said.

Of his wedding, he said: ‘I did really feel that she was there … there were times I looked to someone or something for strength – and I very much felt she was there for me.’

The Duke of Cambridge told ITV: ‘There are not many days that go by that I don’t think of her. Sometimes sad, sometimes very positively.’ William said he felt ‘lucky’ to have had 15 years to get to know his mother before her death and said he made a conscious effort to speak to his own children about ‘Granny Diana’. ‘There were two grandmothers in their lives so it’s important that they know who she was,’ he said.

‘She’d be an absolute nightmare grandmother, absolute nightmare. She’d love the children to bits, but she’d come in probably at bath time, cause an amazing scene with bubbles absolutely everywhere and bath water all over the place, then just leave!’

He said his overwhelming memory of her was a ‘feeling of having her around and being loved as a family or as a son’. ‘We felt incredibly loved, Harry and I. I’m very grateful that love still feels there, even 20 years on.’

Harry added: ‘To myself and William she was just the best mother ever … It was a love that, even if she was on the other side of a room, you could feel.’

Queen quizzed me about Diana's marriage, says friend of Princess

The Queen summoned a friend of Princess Diana to ask about the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.

Harry Herbert revealed the monarch was worried about Diana, following months of speculation about the state of her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

The son of the Earl of Carnarvon, who was then the Queen’s horse racing manager, was a trusted friend of the princess and said she was going through ‘a bad time … the light had gone out’.

He told the documentary that the Queen had raised the issue of Charles and Diana’s marriage after a lunch at Balmoral.

‘The Queen wanted to talk to me about it because she was so worried about Diana,’ he said.

‘[We had] an incredibly important chat, a very personal chat. And the Queen wanted to know how was Diana feeling, and was it as bad as … as it was.’

He added: ‘It was a sad discussion, a sad moment really because that was everything at its worst.’

The meeting took place before Charles and Diana’s official visit to South Korea in November 1992, when photographs revealed their apparent discomfort in each other’s company. The royal couple’s separation was officially announced in December that year.