She may have been the “people’s princess,” but everyone knows the role Princess Diana treasured most was being mom to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
The late Princess of Wales wed Prince Charles in a grand ceremony in 1981. The pair welcomed their first child, William Arthur Philip Louis, the following year on June 21, 1982. They then expanded their family with the addition of Henry Charles Albert David on Sept. 15, 1984, before Diana and Charles’ tumultuous relationship ended in 1996.
On Aug. 31, 1997, Princess Diana died following a high-speed car accident in the Place de l’Alma underpass in Paris.
In the BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days released in 2017, Prince William recalled “just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy” upon learning about their mother’s death.
“You feel very, very confused,” William said. “And you keep asking yourself, ‘Why me?’ All the time, ‘Why? What have I done? Why? Why has this happened to us?'”
In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry revealed he found out about the news from his dad.
“I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right,” Harry recalled. “And I remember him not doing that.”
Charles told his younger son that Diana “didn’t make it.”
“These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board,” Prince Harry said. “He did say it that way, I know that much for sure. She didn’t make it. And then everything seemed to come to a stop.”
The two princes, despite their estrangement, are united in preserving her memory, coming together in 2021 to unveil a statue for her 60th birthday. “Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy,” they said at the time.
“She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. Behind the media glare, to us, two children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world,” Harry said in a speech on the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death.
As we mark the 28th anniversary of her death, see some of the most heartwarming photos of Princess Diana with her two sons.
Picnic in the Park
Princess Diana And Prince William.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
At just 10 months old, William had the full attention of his adoring mother (here, on a trip to New Zealand in 1983). Of learning that her firstborn was to be a boy, Diana told the BBC in a 1995 interview that it was an “enormous relief.”
HEIR AND HEIR ALIKE
Princess Diana stepping off a flight with her sons.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Diana helped her matching towheaded sons William, 4, and Harry, nearly 2, navigate a safe landing at the Aberdeen Airport, where the family headed for a summer vacation in 1986. “It would have been a little tricky if it had been two girls,” Diana told the BBC. “William’s future being as it is, and Harry like a form of a back-up in that aspect.”
Birthday High Jinks
Diana with Prince Harry.
Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty
At the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1988, which marks Queen Elizabeth‘s official birthday (June 11), William, 5, smiled at the crowd while 3-year-old Harry stuck out his tongue – to mom Diana’s chagrin – at the fans surrounding Buckingham Palace.
Let the Music Play
Princess Diana with her boys.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Princess Diana was all smiles as she watched Prince William and Prince Harry take turns tickling the ivories.
Harry’s First Day
Princess Diana with her sons.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Joining big brother Wills, 7, an excited Harry, almost 5, was dropped off on his first day at pre-prep school Wetherby by Diana on Sept. 11, 1989. In a classic Diana move, she broke with the traditional, royal approach to child-rearing – dispensing with governesses and arranging her official schedule around that of her boys.
Life’s a Beach
Princess Diana on vacation.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Things got silly and sandy for Diana as she got in on the fun with Wills, 7, and Harry, 5, and her nephews during a 1990 New Year’s getaway with her mother, Frances Shand-Kydd, on Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson’s private hideaway in the British Virgin Islands.
North Country
Princess Diana with Prince William and Prince Harry.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
During the Waleses’ trip to Canada in October 1991, Diana made time between touring an AIDS hospice and a women’s shelter to join William, 9, and Harry, 7, on a visit to Niagara Falls, where the trio donned rain slickers for a wet and wild voyage on the Maid of the Mist.
Big Hugs Around
The Princess of Wales greets her sons Prince William and Prince Harry on the deck of the yacht Britannia.
Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
Always affectionate, Princess Diana was captured running to give her sons a big hug on the deck of the yacht Britannia as they joined her and Prince Charles on an extended tour of Canada in 1991.
A Regal Carriage
Princess Diana with her sons.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
With nanny Olga Powell and mom Diana, the young princes enjoyed an open-sleigh ride in Lech, Austria, on March 30, 1993.
Let It Snow
Princess Diana with her kids.
Martin Keene – PA Images/PA Images via Getty
In March of the following year, during their pre-Easter break, William, 11, and Harry, 9, returned to the slopes in Lech, Austria, with Mom for a week-long ski trip that had become an annual family tradition.
William’s First Day
Princess Diana, Dr Andrew Gailey, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles.
Princess Diana Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty
Princess Diana beamed as the family marked Prince William’s first day at Eton College on Sept. 6, 1995.
A Mother’s Pride
Princess Diana, Prince Charles and the kids Princes William and Harry.
Anwar Hussein/WireImage
Later, the doting mom was pictured giving 13-year-old William pointers as he signed the traditional entrance book at Eton College. The school was another break with royal tradition: The young prince enrolled at the venerable institution instead of the private boarding school Gordonstoun, an alma mater of his father Prince Charles and grandfather Prince Philip.
Splash Mountain
Princess Diana with her kids.
Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty
Always making sure her boys balanced their royal duties with play, Diana had pre-teens Harry and William bracing themselves for a thrilling – and wet! – day at Britain’s most popular amusement park, Thorpe Park, in 1993.
Royally Chic
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William.
Antony Jones/Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images
Princess Diana looked effortlessly chic as she color coordinated with her boys for the VJ Day 50th Anniversary Celebrations in 1995.
A Summer to Remember
Princess Diana with Prince Harry on St. Tropez.
TAR MAX/IPx/AP Images
A year after her divorce (and a month-and-a-half before her sudden death), a carefree Diana spent a few idyllic days in July 1997 vacationing with Harry, 12, and William, 15 (not pictured), in Saint-Tropez – at the invitation of her new love interest Dodi Fayed’s father.