Sunday 23 July 2017

Diana and her boys dominate the news


This time yesterday, most of us had never seen this image of Prince Harry with Diana. Now, it's one of the most famous photos in the world. Harry and William have released it as they take part in an ITV documentary about their mum which goes out on Monday 24th July in the UK. As with any TV programme, there's publicity beforehand. But when that involves William and Harry talking about Diana, it becomes headline news around the world.


That image of Harry and his mum stares out of just about every newspaper on the stands this morning. Most of them carry a headline relating to the princes' admission in the programme that their last phone call with her was rushed and they regret that now, as they have ever since her death on August 31st 1997.





That admission is just one of the stories to emerge from the ITV documentary. The princes describe being in Balmoral and having fun with their cousins and rushing to the phone to talk to their mother in Paris. William says he remembers what was said but doesn't divulge the details. Both say they rushed off and have regretted that ever since.






The photo of Harry that accompanies most of the headlines is one of several never before seen images that will feature in the programme. There are other photos, too, with the Sunday Express choosing one of Diana holding William while pregnant with Harry.  The day before the programme goes out, Kensington Palace has shared the photos on its Twitter feed and its Instagram account as well.




There are also several videos on the official royal social media feeds of Diana having fun with her boys. In the programme, William and Harry will talk about Diana as a mum, revealing that she was '' a total kid through and through''. They describe her as ''naughty'' and remember her smuggling sweets to them and say she as a ''joker''. Even in the short bursts we already have of the programme, the emotion spills through.



And emotions are heightened, too, when William talks about how much he wishes his mother had met his own children. The Duke of Cambridge tells how he talks about ''granny Diana'' to George and Charlotte and says she would have been a ''lovely'' grandmother as well as a ''nightmare'' who would have come in, splashed and had fun and then gone. 




It's just one story we've only had a taste of so far which shows just how important this programme is going to be. The princes say they wanted to do it to ''provide the other side from close family friends you might not have heard before, from those who knew her best and from those who want to protect her memory, and want to remind people of the person that she was."  It is Diana as her boys knew her. We all want to know about that, to be reminded of just how special the princess was and still is to those who loved her best. With such stories and images, it's no wonder that Diana is, again, dominating the news.

Photo credit: Kensington Palace Twitter.

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