It’s been 25 years since Princess Diana’s death, but her memory lives on through her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry; their wives, Duchess Kate and Meghan Markle; and even their children, Diana’s five grandchildren.
Harry and William shared memories of their famous mom in the 2017 HBO documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy. “To myself and William, she was just the best mother ever,” Harry said. “She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible — and being as short as I was then, there was no escape, you were there and you were there for as long as she wanted to hold you.”
“Even talking about it now, I can feel the hugs she used to give us,” he added. “I miss that. I miss that feeling, I miss that part of a family, I miss having that mother to be able to give you those hugs and give you that compassion that I think everybody needs.”
As he and Harry looked at old photos of the Princess of Wales, who died at age 36 in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997, William explained that he and Kate talk about Diana with their kids, Prince George, Prince Charlotte and Prince Louis. “We’ve got more photos up around the house of her, and we talk about her a bit and stuff,” he said. “And it’s hard because obviously Catherine didn’t know her, so she cannot really provide that level of detail. So I do regularly, putting George and Charlotte to bed, talk about her, and just try to remind them that there are two grandmothers — there were two grandmothers in their lives. And it’s important they know who she was and that she existed.”
In July 2021, the brothers honored their mother with a statue that they commissioned as a tribute. “Today, on what would have been our mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better,” they said in a joint statement at the unveiling. “Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy.”
William later praised his mother’s legacy on what would have been her 61st birthday. “I believe there’s no better way to celebrate her life and work than through recognizing incredible people who dedicate so much time and effort to helping those around them,” he wrote in a letter to the recipients of the Diana Award in July 2022.
Harry, for his part, thanked people for keeping his mother’s “voice alive” in his own recorded message. “Today, we’re reflecting on what would have been my mother’s 61st birthday. And this year is also 25 years since her passing. There isn’t a day during the past two and half decades where I haven’t thought about the mark she left not only on me and my brother, but on all of our lives,” he added at the time.
Scroll down to how the royals have honored Diana in the past: