It was a promise that was never fulfilled. Prince William offered a kind sentiment to his mother after her high-profile divorce from Charles.
In the wake of the divorce from Charles, Diana received a lump sum payment of 17 million pounds, with an additional 350,000 pounds annually to run her private office. She also gained joint custody over Prince William and Prince Harry. At the time of the divorce, Diana also lost her Her Royal Highness titles, which left her “distraught,” per The Mirror.
“Losing the HRH meant it was no longer necessary for friends or staff to bow or curtsy in Diana’s presence,” The Mirror said. “It also meant she would immediately have to curtsy to her husband, her two sons, and a whole host of minor royals.”
A young Prince William made a promise to his mother, saying, “Don’t worry, Mummy, I will give it [her HRH title] back to you one day when I am king.” The interaction led her to tears, as reported by her butler, Paul Burrell. Diana never got to see the change, as she passed away nearly a year after the divorce was finalized.
However, she would still be known as Diana, Princess of Wales after the divorce was finalized. Queen Elizabeth did get a final say in it, saying “there had to be a distance between them.” The late monarch “had to decide on the future title, but she always made it clear to Diana, which was comforting, that she would have all the access she wanted to the boys,” Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton told E! News. “The one thing [Diana] feared above all else was that the boys would be taken away from her, and she knew that the royal family had the constitutional and the legal right to do that if they wanted. But the Queen made it perfectly clear that wouldn’t happen.”
Related: Who Inherited Princess Diana’s Fortune? Some Heirs Didn’t Get What She Wanted
After Princess Diana‘s death, Buckingham Palace consulted the Spencer family and confirmed that her HRH title would not be restored posthumously, as Princess Diana herself would not have wanted any change to the style and title. Her brother Charles said at her funeral that his sister “needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”
As Prince William gets closer to the throne, he reportedly aims to strip one person’s titles: Prince Andrew’s. According to several sources to RadarOnline, Prince William is determined to remove his uncle from the Firm. “The public deserves to know their monarchy is free from scandal,” Prince William reportedly told his inner circle, per the outlet.
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