Prince Harry is reportedly hoping to honour his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in a documentary as the 30th anniversary of her death approaches next summer. Royal reporter Lauren Welch argues that while Harry would have a deeply personal story to tell, Diana's story does not belong only to him.
Diana's story belongs to both sons
Welch notes that Diana's story also belongs to Prince William. Whatever the current state of their once-close relationship, the two men share something that nobody else can ever quite understand: both were, and still are, Diana's sons.
In a recent interview with ITV's Lorraine about his new book, Swan Song, their uncle, Earl Spencer, noted how much Diana doted on her sons, telling the host that they were "the most special things in her life". Harry and William, just 12 and 15 at the time of Diana's death, were undoubtedly the centre of her world, grew up with the extraordinary reality of being her sons and experienced her tragic death together.
Why William's perspective is essential
Welch argues that any documentary that sets out to tell Diana's story through the eyes of her children would feel incomplete without William. Harry is entitled to his own memories, as is William, but both will have memories that the other may not. William was slightly older when they lost their mother; he had his own relationship with her and his own understanding of their family.
Sharing both sides of their story could make the documentary compelling. They do not have to agree; it would likely be more powerful if it acknowledged that two people can love the same person, lose the same person and remember the same person in different ways.
If Harry really wants to share his mother's story, Welch concludes, then William cannot simply be written out of it.
