EXCLUSIVE: Today marks what would have been the late Princess Diana’s 65th birthday – but there are no signs of her warring sons Prince William and Prince Harry joining to remember her together
Exactly five years ago, Princess Diana’s beloved sons, Princes William and Harry, came together to proudly unveil a statue to their mum.
But today, on what would have been the princess’s 65th birthday, there are no signs that Diana’s boys will be remembering her together. In fact, their bitter feud, which has raged for years with them barely speaking since the death of the late Queen in 2022, means chances of the warring brothers even meeting up next week when Harry visits the UK from his new home in California are almost non-existent.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, who spent almost 10 years reporting on Diana – many of them at the height of her split from the then-Prince Charles – also spent many hours chatting to the princess behind palace walls, where they “talked about just about everything”.
And the royal expert told the Mirror that during these catch-ups, Diana’s love for her sons was always a constant – and their current warring status would have left her distraught.
She said: “As we chatted, we were surrounded by photographs of William and Harry, and she was immensely proud of them. So I’m sure she’d be distraught by the rift between them. Diana would undoubtedly have done her very best to broker peace between her warring sons. If anyone could sort things out, it would have been Diana.
“I think she would have understood both their points of view. After all, she’d considered moving to the USA herself, but she also believed strongly in the monarchy and loyalty to the Crown. I think she would have appealed to William and Harry to find a way to forgive, if not forget.
“And she would have been absolutely torn if she had grandchildren on either side of the Atlantic. I think she would have relished being a hands-on Granny and would have wanted to scoop up her grandchildren and “shower them with love” just as she had with her sons.”
William was just 15 while Harry was 12 when their late mother tragically died in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36 in August 1997. And Jennie believes today, they will both be commemorating their mother on the 65th anniversary of her birth – even if it won’t be together.
She added: “In the past, we have seen Harry and William coming together to honour their mother, even when their relationship was strained. But that’s not going to happen this year.
“I’m sure they will each remember her in their own way – it’s thought that Harry at least will visit his mother‘s grave when he is in the UK next week.
“And I’m sure William makes his own pilgrimages to her graveside, but in complete privacy – as it should be. Whenever they talk about her publicly, which is not often, her radiance and sense of fun shine through.
“They remember her laughing, singing in the car, just being the fun mum she was for most of their young lives. And they carry her loss with them wherever they go.”
Next year marks 30 years since her untimely death, and despite their differences, Jennie believes both William and Harry still “carry their mother in their heart”.
She said: “In their own ways, they have continued her work and honoured her legacy by campaigning against homelessness, making mental health a priority and – in Harry’s case – walking in her footsteps across minefields.
“And there’s every chance that her legacy will continue into the next generation with her grandchildren possibly taking up the same causes.”
Jennie chats with Diana started when she asked the princess if she would like to meet her for a simple ‘get to know you’ coffee meeting, given her job closely following the royals – and she was left surprised when she was promptly invited to Kensington Palace.
During their first chat and subsequent get-togethers, Jennie says they talked about everything from their children to Diana’s broken marriage and how she felt about the now Queen Camilla.
She explained: “I was astonished by how open and frank she was about all that had happened, and how she felt about it. She told me almost everything she later said in her notorious Panorama interview, including the now famous phrase that “ there were three of us in this marriage”.
“But I had to remember that this was only Diana’s version of events, the version she wanted me to hear — maybe even to broadcast, even though she swore me to confidentiality.
“I told her once that if she ever felt she just wanted to get away from it all and pop over to my house in North London for a bowl of salad and chat, she’d be very welcome. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, that was one invitation she didn’t take up!
“But she was the sort of woman you felt you could invite over: she was down-to -earth, chatty, funny and fun, when she wasn’t angry or sad. Her sadness from the fact that her marriage had failed. ‘We would have made such a great team’ was her constant refrain.”
Jennie even recalled how, even when the intensity of the split between Diana and Charles was at fever pitch, people would be surprised to know how “giggly and girlish” she was.
She added: “People would be surprised by how ready she was to laugh at herself. She dissolved into giggles when she told me about how, after dispensing with her chauffeur and protection officers, she jumped in her car to go shopping and realised there was hardly any fuel. She’d forgotten, she said, that you had to put petrol in the tank!”
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