Warring brothers Prince William and Prince Harry will reportedly not mark the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death together – neither in public or private.
The Duke of Cambridge, 40, and the Duke of Sussex, 37, have agreed to end public commemorations and will instead remember their mother with their own families.
The pair have not spoken face-to-face since they unveiled a statue of their late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales last summer.
They put their strained relationship aside briefly for the unveiling of the highly anticipated statue in her memory in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, her former London home.
In 2017, William and Harry marked the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death by creating a memorial garden at Kensington Palace, taking part in a documentary and loaning belongings to an exhibition.
Wednesday will be the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death, but the brothers will grieve privately to ark the poignant occasion, The Telegraph reports.
But Prince Harry said this week: ‘I want it to be a day filled with memories of her incredible work and love for the way she did it.
‘I want it to be a day to share the spirit of my mum with my family, with my children, who I wish could have met her. Every day, I hope to do her proud.’
The Duke of Cambridge, 40, and the Duke of Sussex, 37, have agreed to end public commemorations
Diana with her William (left) and Harry (right) attending the Heads of State VE Remembrance Service in Hyde Park on May 7, 1995, in London
Flowers are also expected to be laid en masse outside Kensington Palace.
The occasion comes as Harry and Meghan are to visit the UK next month – but are not set to see William and Kate.
On September 5 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will travel from their home in California to visit Manchester for the One Young World Summit, where Meghan will give the keynote address at the opening ceremony.
The couple will then head to Germany for an event to commemorate a year until the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf on September 6, before returning to the UK for the WellChild Awards in London on September 8 where Prince Harry will deliver a speech.
It is the first time the couple will be in the UK since the Jubilee celebrations in June, when they kept a low profile. They also visited in April, when they secretly met with Charles and the Queen on their way to the Netherlands
The Duke of Cambridge and his family, meanwhile, are moving from Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage – just a ten-minute walk from Windsor Castle, later this month.
Prince WIlliam and Prince Harry unveiling a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace last year
If the Sussexes stay at their home, Frogmore Cottage, will only be a short five-minute walk from the Cambridges, who will be just 800m away when they relocate to Adelaide in the next few weeks.
It will be the first time the two couples have been neighbours since Prince Harry and Meghan moved out of Kensington Palace in 2019.
But a source reportedly said the Sussexes’s visit will be focused on ‘supporting several charities close to their hearts’, and they have no plans to see the Cambridges.
It comes as a French documentary has claimed Harry ‘slammed the phone down’ on Prince William after being confronted with witness statements portraying Meghan Markle as a vicious bully of female staff.
In turn, William – ‘who already didn’t like his sister-in-law very much’ – became so angry at his brother’s insistence on protecting his wife from criticism that he jumped in a car ‘towards Kensington Palace to go and confront Prince Harry’.
The explosive claims are contained in a documentary by the most popular TV news outlet in France.
BFM TV displays emails – disclosed as part of the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday – in an investigative documentary series called ‘Red Line: William and Harry, the enemy brothers’.
It claims that traumatised staff resigned from the Royal Household and set up a WhatsApp group called ‘The Sussex Survivors’ Club’.
The documentary is timed to come out next week.
Diana died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36 – when William was 15 and Harry 12.
While both understand the historical significance of the anniversary, and the fact that many around the world are keen to mark the occasion, it is a much more personal landmark for them.
Friends say they both still feel intense sadness that their mother has been longer out of their lives than in them, and that she has missed seeing the birth of her first grandchildren.