It’s safe to say that Prince William has been through a lot in his life. The future king lost his beloved mother, Princess Diana, while he was only an adolescent, and he has been groomed since birth to become king. Since Diana’s d.e.a.t.h, William and other members of the Royal Family have done their best to honor her memory in a variety of ways.
It is well established that Diana attempted to raise William and his brother, Prince Harry, as normally as possible, much 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, William is following in his beloved mother’s footsteps in more than simply how he raises his children. No, the Prince of Wales has disclosed yet another heartbreaking tradition inherited from the late Diana.
Prince William and Prince Harry were childhood best friends, and the d3ath of their mother, Princess Diana, further deepened their friendship.
Being a member of the Royal Family always implies that one’s childhood was quite different from that of the “average” person. Diana wanted her sons to feel as normal as possible, as evidenced by the discovery of some of her previous letters. Diana sent a specific letter in March 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.
Diana wrote the letter to Cyril Dickman, a former servant at Buckingham Palace, and it was sold at auction in Cambridge in 2017. In other letters, Diana reported that an older Prince Harry was “constantly in trouble” at school. Furthermore, she talked of the joys of motherhood and the “difficult period” that would come later in her life.
Princess Diana frequently took William and Harry to theme parks and other pleasant places. She understood the significance of treating them like any other child, despite the fact that they were royalty. With this in mind, she would occasionally sneak them out of the castle for quick 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 when a statue of Diana was unveiled in the Sunken Garden at London’s Kensington Palace on 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 Diana’s 20th anniversary passing, the two brothers gathered 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 attempting to provide his children as much love as Princess Diana showed him. The fact that William and his wife, Kate Middleton, are attempting to raise Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis as normally as possible has been viewed as one of the primary ways they intend to modernize the monarchy.
According to Judi James, a royal and body language expert, this applies to all aspects of their children’s everyday existence.
“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 agreed that the Prince and Princess of Wales had a “unique” parenting approach in terms of their children’s future lives, the freedom to have fun is vital for the children.
“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 a lot of things, and the future king wants to continue the tradition with his offspring.
“We are very normal in that sense”
William and Kate have discussed how they are raising their children multiple times in the last decade. Before Prince Louis was born, William discussed how he and Kate intended to keep their children’s lives as normal as possible, despite the fact that theirs were 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 forebears, they also have loved ones who come from humbler backgrounds. Their mother’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, are not from the royal family, which has had a significant impact on their upbringing. During a primary school visit in 2017, Kate Middleton discussed how her parents’ parenting style has influenced 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! Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals, explained that Michael and Carole played an important part in the royal children’s early years.
Prince William wants to teach his children that “some of us need a helping hand”
They routinely assist William and Kate in caring for the children, particularly in the days following Kate’s can:cer 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 alive in the Royal Family. In the infamous BBC interview following her royal exit, Elizabeth stated that she wanted to be “a queen in people’s hearts,” not the actual queen. Diana was eager to serve everyone and educated her children that not everyone lived a good life.
Regardless of how sad it was to witness, Diana wanted her children to understand how brutal the world could be outside of Buckingham Palace walls.
William now wants his children to understand that not everyone is as lucky as they are. Speaking to the Sunday Times, he stated that he wanted George, Charlotte, and Louis to understand 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.”
Katie Nicholl, a royal expert, told OK! that she believes it is appropriate that Prince William is passing on his mother’s ideals.
“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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