WITH incredible warmth and fun, the Princess of Wales gave her princes the best of childhood By Royal Editor Camilla Tominey. Arms outstretched, with a huge smile on her face, Princess Diana was clearly desperate to see Princes William and Harry on her return from royal engagements in Canada in 1991. It was the picture that said a thousand words about her as a mother.
As the suited and booted boys waited patiently on the deck of the Royal Yacht Britannia, the mother-of-two practically ran up the steps to see a then 10-year-old William and Harry, eight. Although Prince Charles hadn't seen his children for a month either, and gave them both a hearty hug, it was Diana who enveloped them both in hugs that were caught on camera. As the 20th anniversary of the princess's tragic death in a Paris car crash fast approaches, her sons have revealed the woman behind the public persona. In a landmark documentary for ITV last month, they spoke movingly of how their beloved Mummy would “smother” them with love.
Harry said: "You know, and of course as a son I would say this, she was, the best mum in the world."
Her warm embraces – as that iconic photograph showed – were legendary. "She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible," said Harry. "And being as short as I was then, there was no escape, you were there and you were there for as long as she wanted to hold you.