Both Prince Harry and William had a hard time coming to terms with their mother's death in 1997.
Nobody knows when someone is going to die. For most children, the idea of death is a strange and distant one. It is only in retrospect that many of us understand the value of the last moment we had with our loved one who has passed away. For Princes William and Harry, that moment was when they spoke to their mother, Princess Diana, for the last time. They obviously didn't know that it would be the final chance to hear her voice.
In a 2017 documentary called Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, Harry and William spoke about the impact their mother's last moment with them had on them. Both of them were able to speak to her one last time over the phone since she had called them from Paris. The brothers were just 15 and 12 when she died and were at the Royal Family’s Balmoral estate in Scotland when they received that call, as per Express UK.
The young royals rushed away from the phone call at the time but now, they hold that conversation close to their hearts. Prince William also disclosed his final memories of his mother in the documentary.
"The very last memory that I have is a phone call [at] Balmoral. At the time Harry and I were running around minding our own business, playing with our cousins and having a very good time. I think Harry and I were just in a desperate rush to say goodbye. You know, see you later and we’re going to go off," said the older brother.
The Duke of Cambridge wishes he knew that he won't be able to speak to her ever again. "If I’d known now obviously what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have been so blasé about it. That phone call sticks in my mind quite heavily," he said. He was asked if he remembered specific details about that phone and the Duke of Cambridge responded in the affirmative but didn't disclose any further information about it.
The two brothers had been on good terms when the documentary was done and Prince Harry, who was also present, opened up about that phone call. He remembered William telling him, "Harry, Harry, mummy’s on the phone". He then said, "Right my turn, off I go, you know, pick up the phone. It was her speaking from Paris. I can’t really necessarily remember what I said, but all I do remember is regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was."
He too would have behaved differently had he known it was his last time talking to Princess Diana. "If I’d known that that was the last time... the things I would have said to her," he said, according to Marie Claire.
"There’s not a day that William and I don’t wish that she was still around," he said. "We wonder what kind of a mother she would be now, and what kind of a public role she would have, and what a difference she would be making."
Princess Diana passed away on August 31, 1997, and the brothers recently would have observed that tragic day since it's been 23 years. For the first time, they were not together on August 31. However, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle honored Princess Diana in their own way in the US.
The couple visited the Preschool Learning Center, a school that provides high-quality childcare to preschool-aged children from low-income families, and planted Forget-Me-Not seeds to the garden there. Forget-Me-Not was Diana's favorite flower. The couple has volunteered with the school previously and it's not far from Meghan's alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School, according to Town & Country.
The Sussexes also helped the kids add a mix of flowers and vegetables, such as petunias, California wildflowers, tomatoes, squash, sweet pea, for the Fall. They also spent time with the children reading books about gardening including a story about Jack and the Beanstalk to them.
References:
https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/a33858502/prince-harry-princess-diana-last-phone-call/#
