Londoners hope for healing moment for Harry and William, makeshift memorial marks Diana birthday

Record ID: 1623837

  • Title: Londoners hope for healing moment for Harry and William, makeshift memorial marks Diana birthday
  • Date: 28th June 2021
  • Summary: ROSES LEFT NEXT TO GATE MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL WITH BANNERS TIED TO GATE
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2021 12:58
  • Keywords: British royals Diana birthday Diana legacy Diana statue Princess Diana royal family
  • Location: LONDON, ETON AND CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / HUAMBO, ANGOLA
  • City: LONDON, ETON AND CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / HUAMBO, ANGOLA
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA005EJBF7T3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A makeshift memorial in honour of what would have been the 60th birthday of Britain's Princess Diana has appeared in Kensington Gardens ahead of the occasion on Thursday (July 1).
    Banners featuring photos of Diana and dedications to her were tied to a gate outside Kensington Palace, with red roses laid on the ground.
    "It's hard to forget someone who gave us so much to remember," one of the banners read.
    To officially mark the birthday, a new statue of Diana is to be unveiled in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace on Thursday.
    Her sons, Princes William and Harry, commissioned the commemorative work and are expected to attend the event.
    As locals and visitors in the nearby Kensington High Street on Monday (June 28) shared their memories of Diana and reflected on her legacy, some said they hoped Thursday's unveiling would help heal.
    "I think you have to take what you read and hear about with a pinch of salt but I'm hoping that this will be a really friendly visit and that things will start to heal," said 68-year-old Londoner Yvette Lavis.
    There was a very public falling out between the princes following an explosive interview with Prince Harry, his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and U.S. chat show host Oprah Winfrey in March, when they accused one unidentified royal of making a racist remark and said Meghan's pleas for help when she felt suicidal were ignored.
    One member of the public, Chantelle Thompson, said she hoped the event will help resolve their apparent differences.
    "It's probably a relief that Meghan isn't coming because I think she is still causing some difficulties but hopefully they will, you know, remember their mother together and it's a bridge between them, I think," added Chantelle Thompson.
    In 2017, Princes William and Harry said they had commissioned a statue in honour of their mother, who died in a Paris car crash more than 20 years ago, to be erected outside the older brother's official London home, Kensington Palace.
    Later that year, they chose sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, who produced the image of Queen Elizabeth used on Britain's coins, to create the statue to commemorate 20 years since Diana's death.
    Diana, the first wife of the heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was killed when the limousine carrying her and her lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed in a Paris tunnel in August 1997.
    William was 15 and Harry 12 at the time.
    The first permanent memorial to her, a 210-metre (689-foot) long fountain, was launched in Hyde Park in 2004 after years of bureaucratic wrangling and squabbling over the design.
    (Production: Hanna Rantala, Steve Hignett)
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