Princess Diana’s Supposedly Last Public Photos With Prince William, Explained
TL;DR:
- Princess Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997, after sustaining fatal injuries during a car crash in Paris, France.
- Photos of Princess Diana and Prince William showed them 10 days earlier in London, England.
- Prince William walked behind Princess Diana’s coffin at her funeral just weeks later.
Days before a 1997 car crash would take her life and that of two others, some of the last photos of Princess Diana were taken. A casual outing with her oldest son, Prince William, resulted in a series of images. When Diana died soon after, they became much more than simple snapshots of the mother and son.
Suddenly, they were a record of Diana’s final days ahead of that fateful night in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Ahead, learn about the August 1997 photos of Diana and William which are believed to be their last taken publicly.
Prince William was Princess Diana’s confidante
Before a breakdown of the last photos of Diana and William, here’s some context on their relationship. During an appearance on the To Di For Daily podcast, Sky News’ first royal correspondent, Simon McCoy, explained theirs wasn’t necessarily a traditional mother-son relationship. Rather, they had something of a friend, confidante dynamic at play too.
The reason, as he explained, was because Diana leaned on William for support during her split from Prince Charles. Therefore, he’d known “what was going on” with his parents.
“[William] was much more aware of it because his was the shoulder [Diana] was crying on,” McCoy said. “He was protecting her and I think, to some degree, also protecting Harry from what was going on.”
“William grew up very, very fast because he was the man at the time, a very young man — but he was the person that [Diana] was relying on to see her through,” he added, describing present-day William as “old beyond his years.”
Princess Diana and Prince William’s last photos: The pair had a mother-son lunch at a London restaurant
The last photos of Diana and William are believed to be from a lunch they had just the two of them. The images which, according to Hello!, were taken on Aug. 21, 1997, show them walking down the street.
Wearing a tan pantsuit and blazer, Diana’s pictured next to William who can be seen sporting jeans, a sweater, and tennis shoes. Diana holds her handbag in one hand and a car key in the other while she smiles looking over at her son.
So what’s the story behind the last photos of Diana and William? They’d gone to the London neighborhood of Chelsea for a bite to eat at La Famiglia, an Italian eatery specializing in Tuscan cuisine.
Per the restaurant’s website, seeing recognizable faces isn’t uncommon. It’s described as the “preferred Italian dining experience for aristocracy, royalty, footballers and film stars alike.” Brigitte Bardot, Michael Caine, and Peter Sellars are listed as “a few of the VIPs who walked through the doors” as well as Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret.
Just 10 days after the last photos of Diana and William were taken, Diana died in Paris, France.
Prince William walked behind his mother’s coffin only weeks later
The now-Duke of Cambridge walked behind the casket during a televised funeral for Diana on Sept. 6, 1997. Only days earlier had he been walking the streets of London with his mother.
William’s grandfather, Prince Philip, brother, Prince Harry, uncle, Earl Charles Spencer, and father, Prince Charles, joined him.
In the 2017 BBC documentary, Diana: 7 Days That Shook the Windsors, William recalled the experience. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, that walk,” he said, adding he used his bangs as a “safety blanket” during the funeral. “I felt if I looked at the floor and my hair came down over my face, no one could see me,” he explained.
“There is that balance between duty and family and that’s what we had to do,” he added. The now-40-year-old also he had to find the balance “between me being Prince William and having to do my bit, versus the private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry, who’d lost his mother.”
