Though she has been gone for nearly 28 years, Princess Diana is still very present in the hearts of her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.A former senior royal gardener to the royal family shared what the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex would do to remember Diana on Mother’s Day, which is May 11 in the U.S.In addition to writing cards, the two have also visited Diana’s grave at Althorp, and have brought Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.
Though their mother Princess Diana has been gone for nearly 28 years, she’s never forgotten in the hearts and minds of her sons Prince William and Prince Harry—on any day, but in particular, Mother’s Day.
Though Mothering Sunday in the U.K. took place in March, the U.S.’s Mother’s Day is on May 11, and former senior royal gardener Jack Stooks shared with InStyle the heartfelt way that the brothers continue to honor their mother, who died at just 36 years old on August 31, 1997 following a Paris car accident.
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Prince William.
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William and Harry would often take flowers to the late Princess of Wales’ grave at Althorp House, her Spencer family’s ancestral home, Stooks said. Diana is buried on Oval Island in the middle of Oval Lake at Althorp, a remote location nestled within Althorp Park’s Pleasure Garden.
“Its remoteness is entirely intentional,” Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer wrote in his book Althorp: The Story of an English House, adding that Oval Lake is “a buffer against the interventions of the insane and ghoulish, the thick mud presenting a further line of defense.” Diana’s gravesite is off limits to the public and only accessible by boat.
“William and Harry obviously were devoted to their mother Diana and would have definitely gone and picked flowers for her in the grounds of Highgrove [King Charles’ country home],” Stooks said. “We are also aware that Harry and William often take flowers up to Diana’s grave at Althorp. They definitely still mark Mother’s Day for her.”
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Prince William at Eton in September 1995.
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Spencer said that it was important to him that his nephews William and Harry be able to visit their mother whenever they liked in privacy, he said. “I think it’s very important for them to be there with her,” Spencer told People. “It is, luckily, very tranquil here, and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want. And that’s very lovely for me to know that.”
William has brought wife Kate Middleton to visit Diana’s grave, and Harry detailed bringing wife Meghan Markle to Althorp for the first time in 2022, around the time of the 25th anniversary of her death. Writing in his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry wrote that he and Meghan needed a “little shove” from his uncle to get through the mud as they rowed out on a boat to the island.
A rowing boat at the Oval Lake at Althorp, where Princess Diana is buried on the Round Oval.
Photo by Sion Touhig/Getty Images
“No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one…twenty-fifth anniversary,” he wrote. “And Meg’s first time. At long last, I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.”
“We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first,” Harry continued. “I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity. Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone.”
He added, “I asked, as we walked back to the boat, what she’d prayed for. Clarity, she said. And guidance.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
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In addition to visiting Althorp—which would be easier for William now than Harry, who relocated to the U.S. in 2020—Stooks said, speaking on behalf of Fruity King, that “There would also, of course, be cards. We have seen in recent years that William and Kate and his family still often write cards to his mother on special occasions.”
In 2021, Kensington Palace shared that “Each year on Mother’s Day, [Prince] George, [Princess] Charlotte, and [Prince] Louis make cards remembering their Granny, Diana, for William.” Heartbreakingly George, then 7, wrote on his card, “Dear Granny Diana, Happy Happy mothers day. I love you very much and think of you always. Sending you lots of love.”
Charlotte, who was only 5 at the time, wrote, “I am thinking of you on mothers day. I love you very much.” Of her dad William, she added, “Papa is missing you. Lots of love.”
Louis, who was only 2, was too young to write his own card.
Prince William, Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Kate, and Princess Charlotte attend the Christmas morning service on December 25, 2024.
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As a former royal gardner, Stooks shared that “the royals do tend to be a little more traditional in that they will give flowers from their own gardens, and these could be a bunch of daffodils to a small posy of a mixture of flowers, normally with scent and color being of importance.” (For what it’s worth, Diana’s favorite flower was the forget-me-not.)
Of Queen Camilla, Stooks said that on Mother’s Day “Camilla will no doubt be gifted flowers from her daughter’s [Laura Lopes] and sons’ [Tom Parker Bowles] families, or perhaps, again, they may opt for plants that can be enjoyed in the house for a few days then taken to the garden for planting. If the families are home, they will probably also opt for a private lunch and share it alone, giving them a moment of private time away from all public view.”
Before his mother Queen Elizabeth’s death on September 8, 2022, a “very sentimental” Charles would have bought his mother “organic flowers,” Stooks said.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.
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“The King would have also always sent a card and some flowers from Highgrove up to his mother,” he added. “He is a very sentimental and personal man, so he would have thought very long and hard about what he wanted to give her. He is an amazingly generous and loving person. He very much has his heart and soul with his family. They would also definitely have been organic flowers, as that is something that is very important to him.”
There’s little doubt that Harry will be celebrating Meghan for the U.S.’ Mother’s Day on Sunday. Back in March, when the U.K. marked Mothering Sunday on March 30, Meghan posted a photo of a citrus pie—complete with orange slices and edible flowers—on her Instagram, writing alongside it “Our family tradition. Mothering Sunday in the U.K.,” alongside a lemon emoji.