{"id":387245,"date":"2025-08-31T14:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387245\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T14:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:13:13","slug":"prince-william-and-harrys-regret-over-last-phone-call-with-princess-diana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387245\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince William and Harry&#8217;s Regret Over Last Phone Call With Princess Diana"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>On Saturday, August 30, Prince William and Prince Harry had what would ultimately\u2014and tragically\u2014become their final phone call with their mother, Princess Diana.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> On Saturday, August 30, 1997, <a class=\"recommendation-inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/prince-william-wont-be-pushed-around-11759097\" link-destination-recommendation=\"true\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince William<\/a> was 15 years old and <a class=\"recommendation-inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/prince-harry-in-uk-awkward-question-king-charles-11711074\" link-destination-recommendation=\"true\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince Harry<\/a>, a tender 12 years old. The two boys were with their father, <a class=\"recommendation-inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/king-charles-begged-prince-william-not-make-mistake-he-made-11737354\" link-destination-recommendation=\"true\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince Charles<\/a>, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland\u2014where the royal family typically retreats to in late August\u2014and they were looking forward to seeing their mother, <a class=\"recommendation-inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/princess-diana-wanted-to-wear-daring-looks-final-years-11749812\" link-destination-recommendation=\"true\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Princess Diana<\/a>, the next day, August 31.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> 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\u2019s life would end in a Paris car crash in the early morning hours of Sunday, August 31.\n<\/p>\n<p> Prince Charles, Prince Harry, and Prince William at Balmoral in August 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_7-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> 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, <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/royals\/prince-harry-princess-diana-last-phone-call-diana-our-mother\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">People<\/a> reported.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_9-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cIf I\u2019d known that that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother, things that I would\u2014the things I would have said to her,\u201d Harry said in the documentary.\n<\/p>\n<p> Prince William, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry on March 30, 1993.<\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_12-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cThere\u2019s not a day that William and I don\u2019t 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,\u201d Harry added.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_14-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/princess-diana-last-call-prince-william-prince-harry-the-crown-fact-check-8401860\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In the documentary<\/a>, William said he recalled the last conversation that he had with his mother, but didn\u2019t share specific details. \u201cHarry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018See you later\u2019&#8230;if I\u2019d known now obviously what was going to happen, I wouldn\u2019t have been so blas\u00e9 about it and everything else.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p> Prince William, Prince Charles, and Prince Harry at Balmoral on August 12, 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_17-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Harry confirmed that Diana was in Paris when the call took place, and \u201cI can\u2019t 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p> Prince Charles, Prince Harry, and Prince William at Balmoral in August 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p> Princess Diana on July 1, 1997, what would become her final birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_23-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Longtime royal reporter and friend of Diana\u2019s Richard Kay also spoke to the Princess of Wales that night, in what was likely one of Diana\u2019s very last phone calls of her life. He said she was \u201cin quite a good place,\u201d but that, above all, \u201cshe wanted to come back and see her boys.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_25-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cShe was desperate to try and make a fresh start and do something different,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/royals\/princess-diana-friend-richard-kay-details-last-call-before-her-death\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kay added<\/a>. \u201cTo explore a different kind of royalty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, August 30, Prince William and Prince Harry had what would ultimately\u2014and tragically\u2014become their final phone call&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-387245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115123795038288113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}