WHAT MANY PEOPLE EASILY OVERLOOK… — PRINCE WILLIAM AND PRINCE HARRY STILL QUIETLY HOLD ON TO ONE THING FROM PRINCESS DIANA DESPITE THEIR DEEP RIFT—AND THE MEANING BEHIND IT IS NOW LEAVING MILLIONS OF PEOPLE REFLECTING
There is still connective tissue between the brothers.
Princess Diana with Prince Harry and Prince William at an amusement park.
Credit: Getty
Prince William and Prince Harry may not be on the best of terms, but they still share one important thing in common: their commitment to being good parents.
Royal historian Amanda Foreman told People that this shared value “is pure Diana,” referencing the brothers’s late mother—who died in 1997 when William was 15 years old and Harry just 12 years old.
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Prince William
Credit: Getty
William shares Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8, with wife Kate Middleton. Harry, meanwhile, shares Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, with wife Meghan Markle.
That connection to their mother is perhaps most evident in the names they chose for their daughters. Charlotte’s full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana (with a nod to her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth, too), and Lilibet’s full name is Lilibet Diana. According to People, both William and Harry “often speak of her [Diana] to their children, and her photograph is displayed throughout their homes.”
Prince William, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry on March 30, 1993
Credit: Getty
“The values they are instilling and discussing as families may be their best success,” Foreman said of William and Harry. “They are both very good role models as parents.”
The brothers are also determined to continue Diana’s work for charitable causes in their own lives. Both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex are devoted to philanthropy, and to The Diana Award, the only award named in the late Princess of Wales’s honor.
Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince Louis, and Prince William
Credit: Getty
“I’ve seen how they watch young people who never met their mother articulate the impact she’s had on them,” said Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award, which was founded in 1999, two years after Diana’s death. “There’s a sense of immense pride: ‘Wow, my mother did that!'”
If the brothers ever should reconcile, Foreman said, per People, the impact of that moment would be enormous: “If they could do anything together—properly and genuinely—the force would be a tsunami,” she said. “It would be incredible.”
Prince William and Prince Harry on July 1, 2021
Credit: Getty
Still, the brothers’s ongoing rift “is very profound and very long-lasting,” royal biographer and historian Robert Lacey told People. “It will not be changed, in my opinion, until Harry makes a move and apologizes.”
Read the original article on InStyle
