Princess Diana’s sons will honor her today, on the 25th anniversary of the Diana Award—but will attend separately, as the brother princes are still estranged.
The Diana Legacy Awards, held today at the Science Museum in London, honor young leaders from all over the world who guide and inspire their communities, just as the late Diana did.
Bazaar has learned that her older son, William, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, will attend the event for two hours today to meet key staff and supporters of the Diana Award, and to make a speech at the ceremony and present Legacy Awards to this year’s winners.
Once William leaves, his brother Harry will join the event virtually, to meet with the winners. A charity rep told Bazaar: “He is scheduled to speak with the award recipients, virtually, on the evening of the awards to celebrate their accomplishments.”
A source added that, while the brothers will not see each other at the event, both are still “very involved” with the charity, and plans for the evening have been made for each to play a “key role.”
The princes have been very involved with the Diana Award since its inception in 1999, and Harry even surprised honorees last year at a seminar for the ceremony. But the two have not attended the event together in some time. In 2021, they also made separate appearances, once again with William there in person and Harry calling in via video chat.
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As readers know, William and Harry had a falling-out after Harry married Duchess Meghan and then decided with her in 2020 to step back from their role as senior royals. The brothers’ relationship only got more complicated once Harry and Meghan released a Netflix docuseries detailing their difficult time in the royal family, and when Harry published his memoir, Spare, in which he talks, among many things, about always feeling secondary to William.
In an interview with Good Morning America in 2022 to promote his book, Harry was asked what Princess Diana might think of his strained relationship with William. “I think she would be sad,” he said. “I think she’d be looking at it long-term to know that there are certain things that we need to go through to be able to heal the relationship.”
But later in the year, Bazaar royal editor-at-large Omid Scobie explained in his book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival why the brothers’ icy relationship isn’t likely to warm up soon. “[William] believes Harry and Meghan blindsided the family, even the Queen, with their public complaints and their ‘oh so California’ self-importance (an opinion he has repeatedly voiced in various ways to friends and aides during the past two years),” Scobie wrote. “Convinced Harry’s been brainwashed by an ‘army of therapists,’ William says he no longer even recognizes his own brother, a source said.”
Harry, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he wishes to mend his relationship with his brother.
“My brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years,” Harry told ITV last year. “I love my father, I love my brother, and I love family. I don’t think my father or brother will read the book. … But what they have to say to me and what I have to say to them will be in private, and I hope it can stay that way.”
