Prince William's heartbreaking promise to Princess Diana he couldn't keep
He was only 14 years old...Prince William reportedly made a devastating promise to his mother Princess Diana that he never got the chance to keep.
The young Prince of Wales made the vow to Diana when he was only a teenager. It’s believed the gesture brought the late royal to tears.
Diana married Charles in a fairytale wedding in 1981, with almost one billion people watching around the world. However, the fairytale soon turned sour. By the late 1980s, the couple were growing apart.
Diana was also rocked by rumours of Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Subsequently, in 1996 the pair divorced, after they separated in 1992.
Prince William’s touching promise never became true as Princess Diana passed away before he could fulfil his wish.
What promise did Prince William make to Princess Diana?
Prince William had made the promise to Princess Diana a year before she died in 1997. Diana passed away after sustaining injuries from a tragic car crash after the vehicle was being chased by photographers.
Her former butler, Paul Burrell, claimed in his book A Royal Duty, that the future heir to the throne made the vow to his mother while he was a student at Eton College.
William, born in 1982, made her the promise when aged 14 years old.
In the aftermath of her divorce to Charles, Diana reportedly received £17million in the settlement (worth £40 million today) as well as £400,000 a year to run her private office. On top of that, she kept her apartments at Kensington Palace.
However, she agreed to relinquish Her Royal Highness, The Princess Of Wales title.
Instead, her title became Diana, Princess Of Wales until her tragic death in 1997.
It’s believed the late Queen Elizabeth II was fine with the royal keeping her HRH status, but Prince Charles insisted it be stripped from her name.
Therefore, teenager William is claimed to have said: “Don’t worry Mummy, I will give it [royal title] back to you one day when I am King.”
This reportedly reduced Diana to tears.
William honoured his mother with daughter Princess Charlotte
When Princess Kate and William welcomed their daughter into the world, their second child, they honoured the late Princess of Wales. They named her Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, after his mother and grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
As Prince William never had the chance to fulfil his promise to restore Princess Diana’s HRH title, this was his way of keeping it, a friend said.
Simone Simmons said he finally got to do what he set out as a teenager.
She said: “When Diana was alive, William promised her when he was King [that] Diana would have her HRH restored. This is his way of doing it.”
What do you think of this story? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page.
