It’s safe to say that Prince William has experienced a lot in his life. The future king lost his beloved mother, Princess Diana, when he was only a teenager, and has been groomed since the day he was born to one day be king. Since the death of Diana, William and other members of the Royal Family have done their best to honor her memory in many different ways.
It’s been well documented that Diana tried to raise William and his brother, Prince Harry, as normally as possible, just as the Prince of Wales and his wife, Kate Middleton, are currently doing with their own children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
However, it isn’t just regarding how he is raising his children that William is taking after his beloved mother. No, the Prince of Wales has revealed one further heartbreaking tradition he took from the late Diana.
Prince William and Prince Harry were the best of friends when they were growing up, and the passing of their mother, Princess Diana, only strengthened their bond.
Being a member of the Royal Family always means one’s childhood is very different from that of “average” people. But Diana wanted her sons to feel as normal as possible, which became apparent when some of her old letters were discovered. One specific letter from Diana was written in March of 1985, just six months after the birth of her youngest son, Harry.
How Princess Diana raised Prince William and Prince Harry
“William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!” Diana’s handwritten letter states, as reported by The Sun.
The letter, written by Diana to a former steward at Buckingham Palace, Cyril Dickman, was sold at auction in Cambridge in 2017. In other letters, Diana revealed how a then-older Prince Harry was “constantly in trouble” at school. Moreover, she wrote about the joy of being a mother and described the “difficult period” in her life that was to follow.
Princess Diana often took William and Harry to theme parks and other fun venues. She knew the importance of treating them just like any other child, even though they were royals. With this in mind, she would sneak them out of the palace from time to time to get fast food.
“I remember the princess came into the kitchen one day and said, ‘Cancel lunch for the boys, I’m taking them out, we’re going to McDonald’s,” Diana’s former personal chef, Darren McGrady, told Marie Claire.
“And I said, ‘Oh my God – your Royal Highness, I can do that, I can do burgers.’ And she said, ‘No, it’s the toy they want.’”
“We wish she were still with us”
In the summer of 2021, Prince William and Prince Harry reunited as a statue of Diana was revealed in the Sunken Garden of London’s Kensington Palace on what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday.
“Today, on what would have been our Mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength, and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better,” Harry and William said in a joint statement.
“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.”
A few years later, in 2017, on the 20th anniversary of Diana’s passing, the two brothers got together to talk about their mother.
“When everybody says ‘she was funny, give us an example’. All I can hear is her laugh,” Harry explained.
“She was one of the naughtiest parents, she’d come and watch us play football and smuggle sweet into her socks, literally walking back from a football match and having five packages of [candy]. And just, the whole shirt was full with sweets.”
“We felt incredibly loved by her, and I’m very grateful that the love still feels there,” William added.” It feels like a good time to remember her and hopefully provide a different side.”
Prince William & Kate Middleton are raising their children ‘as normal as possible’
William is trying to give his children as much love as Princess Diana gave him. The fact that he and his wife, Kate Middleton, are trying to raise Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis as normally as possible has been seen as one of the key ways in which they want to modernize the monarchy.
According to royal and body language expert Judi James, that goes for every aspect of their children’s daily lives.
“George, Charlotte and Louis are not only allowed to be playful, fun, spontaneous, and even cheeky in public, they are actively encouraged by their mum and dad, who often look at their most proud and most doting when they are doing so,” James told the Daily Mail in 2023.
Though the expert acknowledged that the Prince and Princess Of Wales have a “unique” parenting style regarding their children’s future lives, the freedom to have fun is vital for the kids.
“William and Kate’s parenting duties were always going to be unique as they’re inducting a prince, princess, and future king into the rules, traditions, and formalities of the royal family as well as allowing three small children to have as much fun and freedom as possible as they do so,” she said.
Princess Diana taught Prince William and Prince Harry many things, and now the future king wants to continue that same tradition with his children.
“We are very normal in that sense”
Both William and Kate have spoken about how they are raising their children several times over the last decade. In 2016, before Prince Louis was born, William talked about how he and Kate wanted to keep things as normal as possible for their kids despite their lives being everything but normal.
“As far as we are concerned within our family unit, we are a normal family,” William said in 2016. “I love my children in the same way any father does and I hope George loves me the same way any son does his father. We are very normal in that sense.”
While Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis have royal relatives, they also have loved ones from more humble begginings. Their mother’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, aren’t from a royal background, and that has had a vital impact on their childhood. During a primary school visit in 2017, Kate Middleton spoke about how her parents’ way of raising her children has affected her own.
“My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect, and honesty, and I realize how central values like these have been to me throughout my life. That is why William and I want to teach our little children…just how important these things are as they grow up. In my view it is just as important as excelling at maths or sports,” Kate said.
Speaking with OK! Royal expert Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals, explained that Michael and Carole have been essential during the royal children’s early years.
Prince William wants to teach his children that “some of us need a helping hand”
They regularly help William and Kate take care of the children, especially in the days since Kate’s cancer diagnosis.
“Having Kate’s family so intrinsically linked with them is key,” Katie Nicholl explained. “The Middletons bring a great dose of normality and stability to those children’s lives. They’re there on the bucket and spade holidays, they’re there for the parties and they’re there to step in when William and Kate need them. They really are just loving, normal, down-to-earth grandparents.”
Princess Diana’s legacy is still very much present within the Royal Family. In the infamous BBC interview following her royal exit, she said she wanted to be “a queen in people’s hearts,” rather than the actual queen. Diana was keen on helping everyone and taught her children that everyone wasn’t living a great life.
No matter how heartbreaking it was to see, it was important for Diana that her children knew about how cruel the world could be outside of the Buckingham Palace walls.
William now wants to teach his children that not everyone is as fortunate as they are. Speaking with the Sunday Times, he revealed he wants George, Charlotte, and Louis to know that “some of us need a helping hand.”
Diana took him and Harry to a homeless shelter when they were young, and the future king intends to do the same with his children.
The heartbreaking reason Prince William is continuing Diana’s tradition with his own children
“My mother introduced me to the cause of homelessness from quite a young age, and I’m really glad she did,” William explained. “I think when I can balance it with their schooling, they will definitely be exposed to it. On the school run, we talk about what we see. When we were in London, driving backwards and forwards, we regularly used to see people sitting outside supermarkets and we’d talk about it.”
He continued: “I’d say to the children, ‘Why are they there? What’s going on?’ I think it’s in all our interests, it’s the right thing to do, to expose the children, at the right stage, in the right dialogue, so they have an understanding.”
Royal expert Katie Nicholl explained to OK! that she finds it fitting that Prince William is passing on his mother’s values.
“It wasn’t just Diana – Charles also wanted his sons to have a better understanding of life outside the Palace walls,” she said. “They both came from the same perspective of wanting to raise those boys with an understanding of normal life outside the confines of royal protocol.”
“William and Kate’s children are probably more aware of homelessness than most children from privileged backgrounds, because it’s something their father campaigns passionately for and has done since he was 18. I think their eyes have been quite wide open from an early age – and that is largely because of William and Kate’s hard work,” she added.
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