London: It has been twenty years since Princess Diana died in a car-chase in Paris, in a death that shocked the world, sparked a mass outpouring in grief not seen before in Britain, nearly brought the Royal Family to its knees and focussed the world's attention on two young boys, grieving publicly and bravely.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
Prince William, who was fifteen at the time, says he thinks of his mother every day.
"There's not many days that go by that I don't think of her, you know - sometimes sad, sometimes very positively." he said.
In a moving documentary, celebrating her life, Princes William and Harry have for the first time, together opened up about they mother they knew in private, in the ITV film Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.
Broadcast in Britain on Monday night local time, the princes share candid snaps, most taken by Princess Diana, for the first time.
Prince William said he felt his mother's presence with him when he married Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, in 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
"I did really feel that she was there. And you know, there was times when you, you look to someone or something for strength and I very much felt she was there for me."
He said he constantly tells their two children, George and Charlotte, about "Granny Diana".
"It's important that they - they know who she was and that she existed."
'Smothered us' with love
The two princes recalled their mother as one of the "naughtiest", "incredibly caring" and "funniest" mothers who "smothered" them with love, leading to Prince Harry's delightful revelation about what he'd love to ask his Mum, if he could.
" One thing I would love to ask her now because I genuinely think that she got satisfaction out of dressing myself and William up in the most bizarre outfits, normally matching.
"It was weird shorts and you know like, little sort of shiny shoes with the old clip on.
"I just think how could you do that to us?"
Both recalled their mother trying to show them as normal a life as possible, sneaking them to takeaway joints and the movies and on drives in her BMW, while listening to Enya. They said she would play tricks on them, send them rude cards at school and stuff their socks with lollies. " Our mother was a total kid through and through," said Prince Harry.
" One of her mottos to me was, you know, 'you can be as naughty as you want, just don't get caught.'"
Little bit too raw
Prince Harry was candid about the way he had dealt with his grief revealing he has only twice ever cried over her death - once at the private funeral on the island at Diana's family home Althorp where she is buried. The prince was 12 at the time and said he had coped by putting his head in the sand and "shutting" and "locking it out."
"I grew up sort of thinking that not having a mum was normal. I think it was a classic case of don't let yourself think about your mum and the grief and the hurt that comes with it, because it's never going to bring her back and it's only going to make you – make you more sad."
"I went through a whole period of having to try and sort my – sort myself out," he said.
He said even now it was "still raw." " Even talking about it now I can feel the hugs that she used to give us and I miss that, I miss that feeling, I miss that part of a family, I miss having that mother."
Prince William, who 15 at the time of his mother's death, described it as "utterly devastating."
"It sort of really spins you out, you don't quite know where you are, what you're doing and what's going on."
Regrets
Both Princes said their biggest regret was their final conversation with their mother. They were holidaying at Balmoral on the Scottish highlands when their mother called, interrupting their play with their cousins.
Neither could possibly have known what would happen in a few hours time and rushed the conversation, resentful that they spent too much time speaking on the phone and not in person to their parents, whose marriage ended in divorce in 1996.
" Harry and I were just in a desperate rush to, to say goodbye.
"If I'd known now obviously what was going to happen I wouldn't have been so blasé about it and everything else.
"That phone call sticks in my mind quite, quite heavily," Prince William said.
While Prince William can remember what they spoke about, Harry can't.
"All I do remember is - is probably, you know, regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was."
"I have - I have to sort of deal with that for the rest of my life."
On the media
Both princes hit out at the media for hounding their mother and themselves as young boys. When Princess Diana died in the Paris motor tunnel she was being pursued by papparazzi, who were frequently blamed for contributing to the crash.
"People would be utterly appalled if they knew exactly what went on," Prince William said.
"It was an industry that lost its way quite heavily, lost its sense of decency, lost its perspective on what was appropriate."
He said it had taught him to maintain a barrier with the media because once you let them in, problems arise.
Princess Diana was often accused of manipulating the media and inviting them into her private life when it suited, for example when in 1995 she gave a tearful interview to the BBC's Panorama programdetailing her knowledge of her then husband, Prince Charles' affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, whom he married in private before family in 2005.
ITV's Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy airs on the Seven Network on Sunday night.
