‘She was the best mum in the world’: How Harry and William remember their mother, Princess Diana

On Princess Diana's 25th death anniversary, we look back at what her doting sons Prince William and Prince Harry have said about her parenting style

Princess Diana with her children at Thorpe Park (Source: dianaforeverremembered/ Instagram)

Memories of Princess Diana remain alive more than two decades after her sudden and tragic death in a car accident in Paris. August 31 marks the 25th death anniversary of the Princess of Wales who, in her lifetime, was celebrated for being a great leader and an incredible woman, and continues to be hailed even today.

But, amid the many official roles and responsibilities that she carried out until her last day, Diana definitely stood out as an amazing mother.

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“She was our mum. She still is our mum. And of course, as a son I would say this, she was the best mum in the world,” Prince Harry was quoted as saying in ITV‘s new documentary, Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.

Chronicling his favourite childhood memories with his mother, he added, “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 for as long as she wanted to hold you.”

Also Read | | Harry had arranged for flowers to be laid on Princess Diana’s grave for Mother’s Day

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He added that he missed that feeling of being hugged. “Behind closed doors, she was a very loving, caring mother and an incredibly funny person. I think she lived a lot of her life, especially in private, through us and I think that childish fun element really came out when she was spending time with us.”

Prince William, too, reminisces the car rides that he would take with his mother. He loved her singing and listening to ‘The Best‘ by Tina Turner as she dropped him off to school. “You’d be singing and listening to music right the way up to the gates of school when they dropped you off and that’s when reality kind of sunk in — you really were going back to school,” William said, as per a report in The Independent.

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Calling it a “real family moment”, he added that “when I listen to it now, it takes me back to those car rides and brings back lots of memories of my mother.”

Prince Harry, too, has had his fair share of funny childhood memories with Princess Diana. “She got satisfaction out of dressing myself and William up in the most bizarre outfits — weird shorts and little shiny shoes with the old clip on,” he mentioned in the documentary.

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He added that he would want to ask her now, ‘How could you do that to us?’

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After Prince Harry renounced his title, it was the unveiling of Princess Diana’s statue on her 60th birthday that brought the Duke of Cambridge Prince William and Duke of Sussex Prince Harry together.

Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex reacts next to his brother Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, in front of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace (Dominic Lipinski/Pool via REUTERS)

Recently, in a speech Prince Harry delivered in Colorado, he said. “Next week is the 25th anniversary of my mother’s death, and she most certainly will never be forgotten.”

Also Read | | More than an icon: Designer Elizabeth Emanuel recalls Diana

He continued, “I want it to be a day filled with memories of her incredible work and love for the way she did it.”

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He also said, “I want it to be a day to share the spirit of my mum with my family, with my children, who I wish could have met her.”

Also Read | | Princess Diana sat for 35 hours over the course of 30 sittings for this ‘rare’ portrait

It was earlier reported that Prince William’s three children — George, Charlotte and Louis — too, had made sweet cards for their ‘Granny Diana’ on the occasion of Mother’s Day, remembering the iconic global personality for their father, the Duke of Cambridge, even though the kids have never met her.