• On Saturday, August 30, Prince William and Prince Harry had what would ultimately—and tragically—become their final phone call with their mother, Princess Diana.
  • The boys, then 15 and 12, were with their father, Prince Charles, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the royal family typically retreats to in August. Diana was in Paris, and she was looking forward to seeing the boys the next day, Sunday, August 31.
  • Diana died in a car crash in the early morning hours of August 31, and William and Harry share a regret in the brevity of their final phone call with their beloved mother.

On Saturday, August 30, 1997, Prince William was 15 years old and Prince Harry, a tender 12 years old. The two boys were with their father, Prince Charles, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland—where the royal family typically retreats to in late August—and they were looking forward to seeing their mother, Princess Diana, the next day, August 31.

The boys had been away from their mother for a few weeks, and she called them that Saturday, no one having any idea that Diana’s life would end in a Paris car crash in the early morning hours of Sunday, August 31.

Prince Charles, Prince Harry, and Prince William at Balmoral in August 1997.

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Both men shared regrets in the 2017 documentary Our Mother Diana: Her Life and Legacy that their final phone call with their beloved mother was so brief in length. Not knowing what was ahead, they were excited to get back to playing with their cousins, People reported.

“If I’d known that that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother, things that I would—the things I would have said to her,” Harry said in the documentary.

Prince William, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry on March 30, 1993.

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“There’s not a day that William and I don’t wish that she was still around, and we wonder what kind of a mother she would be now, and what kind of a public role she would have, and what a difference she would be making,” Harry added.

In the documentary, William said he recalled the last conversation that he had with his mother, but didn’t share specific details. “Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know,” he said. “‘See you later’…if I’d known now obviously what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have been so blasé about it and everything else.”

Prince William, Prince Charles, and Prince Harry at Balmoral on August 12, 1997.

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Harry confirmed that Diana was in Paris when the call took place, and “I can’t really necessarily remember what I said, but all I do remember is probably regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.”

Prince Charles, Prince Harry, and Prince William at Balmoral in August 1997.

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Princess Diana on July 1, 1997, what would become her final birthday.

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Longtime royal reporter and friend of Diana’s Richard Kay also spoke to the Princess of Wales that night, in what was likely one of Diana’s very last phone calls of her life. He said she was “in quite a good place,” but that, above all, “she wanted to come back and see her boys.”

“She was desperate to try and make a fresh start and do something different,” Kay added. “To explore a different kind of royalty.”