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." William and Harry's charitable work and the causes they support seem to be guided by their mother's interests, according to Roya Nikkhah, royal correspondent for The Sunday Times newspaper. We wanted to capture her warmth and humanity while showcasing the impact she had across generations. I hope that people will enjoy visiting the statue and the Sunken Garden, and taking a moment to remember the princess.” A year later, Diana responded with a devastating interview on the TV program Panorama. It was here she talked about her bulimia and self-harm, suggested Charles was a dubious prospect as king, admitted to an infidelity or two, and fired that memorable broadside across Camilla’s bow: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Diana had to be prodded to travel to Eton, where 13-year-old William had recently enrolled, to tell him in advance that the program was running. “She told William that [it] would contain nothing controversial and that he would be proud of her,” Junor writes. William watched the program in the study of his Eton housemaster, angry, aghast and no doubt humiliated at the family secrets she laid bare before some 20 million viewers. Shortly afterwards the Queen told the warring couple to get on with a divorce. Sensing a deep need, the Queen encouraged William to make regular visits to Windsor Castle, just across the bridge from Eton, for tea and sympathy. The bond they already shared has only grown stronger in the years since.

For all the love Diana showered on her boys, her insecurities were never far from the surface. Barbara Barnes was the children’s beloved nanny. Each morning William would climb into bed with her before they got up for breakfast. Diana began to feel threatened by William’s bond with Barnes, and the nanny was dismissed on the flimsiest of excuses. William, just 4, was hurt and bewildered at the loss of his “Baba,” as he called her. “He became less outgoing, less trusting, less inclined to make himself vulnerable,” wrote Junor. Over the phone from London, there is an edge of anger in Junor’s voice. “The only explanation is she was so tied up with her own feelings that she couldn’t look beyond them to see what this would do to her sons,” she said. “It’s so weird, given that she herself was abandoned and knew how painful that was.” Notably, nanny Barnes was one of the names William added to his personal wedding guest list 24 years after she vanished from his life.

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The marriage was already in trouble by the time of Harry’s arrival in 1984, some 27 months after William’s birth. Charles grew frustrated and depressed as he failed to win the respect and support of his young wife. Diana had wild mood swings: carefree and compassionate one moment, brooding, insecure and sarcastic the next. Much of it, Junor believes, was rooted in Diana’s difficult childhood. Her home life was marked with unhappiness and there were frequent violent arguments between her parents. Her mother fled the marriage for another man and lost custody of the children when Diana was six. “In [Diana’s] mind, the matter was simple,” Junor writes. “Her mother didn’t want her, therefore she must be worthless.” Twenty-five years after her tragic death, James Patterson tells the heartbreaking true story of Princess Diana's life as a mother and a global icon. Diana’s faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way. She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it.

Reports of a rift between the siblings have swirled in the British press since 2018, and Harry has previously said that he and William had "been through hell together," but were now on "different paths."

William understood Diana more but idealized her less. He was privy to her volatile love life. He knew the tabloids made her life hell, but he also knew she colluded with them. By his early teens, he was his mother’s most trusted confidant. She used to describe him as “my little wise old man.”