The Most Heartwarming Photos of Princess Diana with Young William and Harry on the 28th Anniversary of Her Death

She may have been celebrated worldwide as the “people’s princess,” but the role Princess Diana cherished above all others was being a devoted mother to her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Diana married Prince Charles in a lavish royal ceremony in 1981. Their first child, William Arthur Philip Louis, was born on June 21, 1982, followed by the arrival of Henry Charles Albert David on September 15, 1984. Despite the joys of parenthood, their marriage struggled and officially ended in 1996.

Tragedy struck just a year later, on August 31, 1997, when Diana died after a devastating car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

In the 2017 BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days, Prince William remembered the moment he learned of his mother’s death, describing himself as “completely numb, disorientated, dizzy” and filled with confusion. “You keep asking yourself, ‘Why me? Why has this happened to us?’” he reflected.

Prince Harry, in his memoir Spare, shared his own painful memory of that day, revealing that his father broke the news. “I remember waiting for Pa to reassure me that Mummy was all right. But he didn’t. Instead, he said, ‘She didn’t make it.’ Those words have stayed with me like darts stuck in a board.”

Although their relationship has faced challenges in recent years, both princes remain deeply committed to honoring their mother’s legacy. In 2021, they reunited to unveil a statue at Kensington Palace on what would have been her 60th birthday. “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,” they said in a joint statement.

Harry once described her as “our guardian, friend, and protector,” adding during the 10th anniversary of her death that “she never let her love for us go unspoken or unseen. To us, behind the media glare, she was simply the best mother in the world.”

As the world reflects on the 28th anniversary of her passing, Diana’s most tender legacy endures in the bond she shared with her sons — captured in countless heartwarming photographs of the Princess of Wales with William and Harry.

Picnic in the Park– Princess Diana And Prince William.

At just 10 months old, William had the full attention of his adoring mother (here, on a trip to New Zealand in 1983). Of learning that her firstborn was to be a boy, Diana told the BBC in a 1995 interview that it was an “enormous relief.”

HEIR AND HEIR ALIKE

Diana helped her matching towheaded sons William, 4, and Harry, nearly 2, navigate a safe landing at the Aberdeen Airport, where the family headed for a summer vacation in 1986. “It would have been a little tricky if it had been two girls,” Diana told the BBC. “William’s future being as it is, and Harry like a form of a back-up in that aspect.”

Birthday High Jinks

At the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1988, which marks Queen Elizabeth‘s official birthday (June 11), William, 5, smiled at the crowd while 3-year-old Harry stuck out his tongue – to mom Diana’s chagrin – at the fans surrounding Buckingham Palace.

Let the Music Play

Princess Diana was all smiles as she watched Prince William and Prince Harry take turns tickling the ivories.

Harry’s First Day

Joining big brother Wills, 7, an excited Harry, almost 5, was dropped off on his first day at pre-prep school Wetherby by Diana on Sept. 11, 1989. In a classic Diana move, she broke with the traditional, royal approach to child-rearing – dispensing with governesses and arranging her official schedule around that of her boys.

Life’s a Beach

Things got silly and sandy for Diana as she got in on the fun with Wills, 7, and Harry, 5, and her nephews during a 1990 New Year’s getaway with her mother, Frances Shand-Kydd, on Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson’s private hideaway in the British Virgin Islands.

North Country

During the Waleses’ trip to Canada in October 1991, Diana made time between touring an AIDS hospice and a women’s shelter to join William, 9, and Harry, 7, on a visit to Niagara Falls, where the trio donned rain slickers for a wet and wild voyage on the Maid of the Mist.

Big Hugs Around

Always affectionate, Princess Diana was captured running to give her sons a big hug on the deck of the yacht Britannia as they joined her and Prince Charles on an extended tour of Canada in 1991.

A Regal Carriage

With nanny Olga Powell and mom Diana, the young princes enjoyed an open-sleigh ride in Lech, Austria, on March 30, 1993.

Let It Snow

In March of the following year, during their pre-Easter break, William, 11, and Harry, 9, returned to the slopes in Lech, Austria, with Mom for a week-long ski trip that had become an annual family tradition.

William’s First Day

Princess Diana beamed as the family marked Prince William’s first day at Eton College on Sept. 6, 1995.

A Mother’s Pride

Later, the doting mom was pictured giving 13-year-old William pointers as he signed the traditional entrance book at Eton College. The school was another break with royal tradition: The young prince enrolled at the venerable institution instead of the private boarding school Gordonstoun, an alma mater of his father Prince Charles and grandfather Prince Philip.

Splash Mountain

Always making sure her boys balanced their royal duties with play, Diana had pre-teens Harry and William bracing themselves for a thrilling – and wet! – day at Britain’s most popular amusement park, Thorpe Park, in 1993.

Royally Chic

Princess Diana looked effortlessly chic as she color coordinated with her boys for the VJ Day 50th Anniversary Celebrations in 1995.

A Summer to Remember

A year after her divorce (and a month-and-a-half before her sudden death), a carefree Diana spent a few idyllic days in July 1997 vacationing with Harry, 12, and William, 15 (not pictured), in Saint-Tropez – at the invitation of her new love interest Dodi Fayed’s father.