Prince Harry could return to tell the story of his mother, Lady Diana, through a new documentary to be made on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of her death, which will occur on 31 August 2027. The Duke of Sussex is in fact evaluating various projects dedicated to the memory of the Princess of Wales and has already made contact with some people who knew her personally, including friends and family, to explore the possibility of constructing a story capable of restoring her human and cultural legacy thirty years after the car accident that cost her her life Paris.
According to what was reported by the Express and confirmed by sources cited by People magazine, among the initiatives taken into consideration there would be a documentary on Diana’s life, even if at the moment no definitive project has been defined, nor have production agreements or a possible distribution date been announced. Harry would have already started a series of preliminary contacts with people close to his mother, which could also include his maternal uncle Charles Spencer, who in recent days has returned to talking about his sister through a new memoir.
Harry and William had already told Lady Diana together in 2017
The idea of a new documentary would inevitably bring back memories of Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, the film made in 2017 on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the princess’s death, in which Harry and William shared personal memories, photographs and testimonies from their childhood, publicly recounting the relationship with their mother and the consequences of her death.
When Diana died on 31 August 1997, Harry was only twelve years old, while William was fifteen, and the two brothers suddenly found themselves at the center of a mourning followed live by millions of people around the world, becoming protagonists of one of the most remembered moments in the recent history of the British monarchy: the funeral procession during which they accompanied their mother’s coffin through the streets of London, walking behind the coffin together with their father Charles, their grandfather Philip and their uncle Charles Spencer.
In the 2017 documentary the two princes had chosen to remember Diana above all in her family dimension, offering the public the portrait of an affectionate and present mother, far from the official images and stories that had accompanied her public life. Almost ten years later, any new project would inevitably take on a different meaning, also considering the now difficult relationship between Harry and William, who have no longer shared public initiatives dedicated to their mother with the same participation shown in the past.
At the moment it is not known whether Prince William has been informed of the possible documentary or whether he could be involved in its creation, while it remains to be understood what approach Harry would like to give to the project and how much space could be reserved for his personal experience.
The possible involvement of his uncle Charles Spencer
Among the people who could contribute to the new story dedicated to Lady Diana is Charles Spencer, the princess’s younger brother and Harry’s maternal uncle, who recently published Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, a book in which he retraces his relationship with his sister, family memories and the events that followed her death.
Count Spencer said he wanted to put his testimony in writing in view of the thirtieth anniversary of Diana’s passing, also to respond to the numerous requests for interviews received over the years and to offer a reconstruction of her life through the memories of those who had known her since childhood.
The book also brings the difficult relationship between Diana and the British royal family back to the center of attention, with particular reference to the events following her death and the decisions taken at the funeral, on which Charles Spencer has expressed critical positions over the years. Some of his memories have been challenged by Buckingham Palace, which has drawn attention to the way grief can affect memory of events, while the Earl has publicly defended his reconstruction.
Despite rumors about Spencer’s possible involvement in Harry’s project, his participation in the documentary has not been confirmed and it remains to be clarified whether the Duke of Sussex intends to collect unpublished testimonies from family members or develop a more personal story, focused on his mother’s legacy and the way in which it influenced his life.
The memory of Diana and the bond with Harry
The relationship with the memory of the princess continues to occupy an important place in Harry’s public life, who over the years has repeatedly spoken about the loss of his mother, also recounting in the autobiographical book Spare the difficulties he experienced during adolescence and the long journey he faced in grieving.
Charles Spencer also described the bond that continues to unite him with his sister through some personal objects, saying that he still wears, on particularly important occasions, a pair of cufflinks received as a gift from Diana at the end of the 1980s, as a way of feeling symbolically close to her in difficult times.
«There are times when I feel Diana at my side in difficult moments. If I have to deal with something really important, a meeting where something crucial is decided or whatever, I always wear the cufflinks he gave me in the late 1980s, as a sort of memorial. The memory of Diana gives comfort to people even now”, said the count.
Words that restore a private dimension of the memory of Diana, whose figure continues to be at the center of documentaries, books and commemorative initiatives even almost thirty years after her death, while the next anniversary could offer the Spencer family and their two children a new opportunity to remember her.
For Harry, a possible documentary would also represent the possibility of resuming a story he began publicly with his brother William in 2017, returning to talk about his mother from a personal and family perspective, at a time in which his life and his relationship with the British monarchy have profoundly changed.
For the moment, however, the project remains only one of the hypotheses taken into consideration by the Duke of Sussex in view of 31 August 2027, a date that will inevitably bring international attention back to the figure of Diana Spencer and the legacy left by the princess thirty years after her death.
