24 AWW.COM.AUAUGUST 2017
THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES. OPPOSITE: MARIO TESTINO, DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES, LONDON,VANITY FAIR, 1997.T
he memory is as fresh
as the scent of a newly
plucked rose, while the
legacy grows more powerful
as each year goes by. For
most people even today, 20 years after
her death, the name Diana needs no
suffix. Come late August, the floral
tributes will once again pile up outside
Kensington Palace – fewer now, the
donors older – but the worldwide
passion for Diana, Princess of Wales,
remains as potent a force as ever.
For Prince William and Prince Harry,
the grief has gone, but the longing
remains. For the rest
of us, it’s as if she
never went away.
As William himself
says, “Everyone
knows the story.
Everyone
knows her.”
And on this
20th anniversary,
the Princes have
begun talking about
their mother like
never before –
blowing the cobwebs
away, dusting down
her reputation,
encouraging others
to take a fresh look.
“All I want to do
is make my mother proud,” says
Harry. “It’s she who inspires the
work I do. When she died, there was
a gaping hole, not just for us, but also
for a huge amount of people around
the world. If I can try to fill a very
small part of that, then job done.
“I can safely say that losing my
mum at the age of 12 had quite
a serious effect on not only my
personal life, but my work as well.”
William speaks equally lovingly
about Diana. “I would like to have
had her advice,” he says.
“I would love her to have met
Catherine and to have seen the
children grown up. It makes me sad
that she won’t, that they will never
know her. I still find it difficult now –
the shock is the biggest thing and Istill feel it 20 years later about my
mother. People think shock can’t
last that long, but it does. It’s such
an unbelievably big moment in your
life and it never leaves you.”
With two upcomingdocumentaries
on television and a slew of interviews,
the creation of a memorial garden
at Kensington Palace and the promise
of a new statue for Diana, the
Princes’ desire to reinforce their
mother’s place in history may seem
disproportionate, given the passage
of time. Yet they’re determined she
will not be forgotten.She is everywhere you look –
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge,
wears her engagement ring. Two-year
old Princess Charlotte bears her name.
The House of Windsor changed its tune
in deference to her. Pages of history
are devoted to her achievements.
And a whole new generation, as yet
unborn at the time of Diana’s passing,
has grown up feeling that somehow
they knew her.
“Not quite a saint, but most
definitely one of the angels,” said her
dearest friend Lucia Flecha de Lima,
just before her death earlier this year.
“A combination of beauty, pluck
and compassion” is her former
private secretary Patrick Jephson’s
recollection. “The Diana story
continues to strike a chord.”Why, though? Why, in this year,
should we take special notice, when
so many have passed away since
her tragic death in a Paris tunnel in
1997? The answer lies with her two
sons, freed at last from self-imposed
restraint, who feel strongly that
as their father fast approaches
kingship, their mother should have
her rightful place in history, too.
Inevitably, this new Diana campaign
of theirs will cause discomfort to
Prince Charles and Camilla, the
Duchess of Cornwall – who, on their
upward path to full public approval as
a couple, would feel
a lot happier with
less mention of the
“D” word. And
though the Palace
machinery – more
media-savvy these
days, largely thanks
to Diana’s hefty
contribution decades
ago – is capable
of withstanding
suggestions of a rift,
some seasoned
observers sense a
recent distancing
between father
andsons.
The Princes are
right, of course,
to want their mother accorded full
recognition in the history books.
Diana became not only the world’s
most famous woman, she brought
a new lustre to the British royals,
gave them a new sense of direction,
freshened up their outlook and
opened the door to previously
unthought-of possibilities. Today,
to a large extent, her two sons are
fulfilling her own personal ambitions
and live in the glow she has cast
down the years.The compassionate Princess
What made Diana so remarkable was
her unique combination of compassion,
glamour and an unerring instinct when
it came to the media. Particularlyafter
the breakdown of her marriage, her»