Prince William and Prince Harry Remember Their Last Words With Princess Diana

They made their comments in a documentary about her, which marks the 20th anniversary of her death and which features never-before-seen photos and videos of their family

By Corinne Heller Jul 23, 2017 2:39 PMTags
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince WilliamGetty Images

Prince William and Prince Harry have opened up for the first time about the last conversations they had with their mother, the late Princess Diana.

Or rather, lack thereof.

In the new British documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, which airs on ITV on Monday, William, 35, and Harry, 32, say that the last time they spoke to their mother was over the phone. She had called them from Paris and their chats were brief.

"The very last memory I have is a phone call from Balmoral [Castle in Scotland]," William said, according to ITV. "At the time Harry and I were running around, minding our own business, playing with our cousins and having a very good time. Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say 'Goodbye, see you later, can I go off?' If I'd known what was going to happen I wouldn't have been quite so blasé about it. That phone call sticks in my mind quite heavily."

Asked if he remembers now what Diana said to him, William replied: "I do."

Hours later, Diana died in Paris in a car crash in 1997. She was 36. This August will mark the 20th anniversary of her death.

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Remembering Princess Diana

"It was her speaking from Paris," Harry recalled. "I can't necessarily remember what I said but all I do remember is regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was. If I'd known that that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother, the things I would have said to her."

"Looking back at it now—it's incredibly hard," he continued. "I have to deal with that for the rest of my life: not knowing that it was the last time I'd speak to my mum, how differently that conversation would have panned out if I'd had even the slightest inkling that her life was going to be taken that night."

The documentary also features never-before-seen footage and photos of Diana with her sons when they were little. A promo clip of the two discussing the pics was released earlier this month.

Kensington Palace released three of the pics online Saturday night. One of them shows a pregnant Diana with William. Another shows her embracing Harry. A third shows the two brothers sitting on a fence.

 

Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace
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Princess Diana's Best Looks

The video footage features a clip of Diana and Harry riding a water ride at the Thorpe Park amusement park in Surrey, England.

"Our mother was a total kid through and through," Harry says in the documentary. "When anybody says to me, 'So she was fun? Give us an example,' all I can hear is her laugh in my head and that sort of crazy laugh…just pure happiness shown on her face."

"One of her mottos to me was, ‘Be as naughty as you want. Just don't get caught.' She was one of the naughtiest parents," he said. "She would come and watch us play football and smuggle sweets into our socks, like literally walking back from the football match and having sort of five packets of Starburst and just the whole shirt was just bulging with sweets and I'm sort of looking around, open the top box, throw it all in, lock it up."

In the documentary, William says there are not many days that go by that he does not think of his mother. 

"Her 20th anniversary year feels like a good time to...remember, you know, all the good things about her and hopefully provide maybe a different side to her that others haven't seen before," he said.