She was there in spirit. Prince William says that he felt his late mother Princess Diana’s presence at his 2011 wedding to Duchess Kate at Westminster Abbey in London.
“When it came to the wedding, I did really feel that she was there,” William, 35, says in the upcoming ITV and HBO documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy. “You know, there was times when you look to someone or something for strength, and I very much felt she was there for me.”
He adds that he’s constantly reminded of his mother. “There are not many days that go by that I don’t think of her, you know,” he says. “Sometimes sad, sometimes very positively. I have a smile every now and again when someone says something, and I think, ‘That’s exactly what she would have said,’ or, ‘She would have enjoyed that comment.’”
William, who was only 15 years old when Diana died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997, says that his mom never truly left him. “So they always live with you, people you lose, like that,” he continued. “And my mother lives with me every day. I give thanks that I was lucky enough to be her son and that I got to know her for the 15 years that I did.”
In the documentary, William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, speak candidly about Diana in honor of the 20th anniversary of her death. “This is the first time the two of us have ever spoken about her as a mother. She was very informal and really enjoyed the laughter and the fun,” William says. “She was one of the naughtiest parents — but she understood there was a real life outside of palace walls.”
Harry, 32, also admits that he struggled to cope after the tragedy. “She was our mum. She still is our mum. And of course, as a son I would say this, she was the best mum in the world,” he says. “She smothered us with love, that’s for sure.”
Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy airs on HBO Monday, July 24.
