Prince William honors Princess Diana with never-before-seen childhood photo on UK Mother's Day tribute

16 Mar 2026 By foxnews

Prince William is honoring his late mother Princess Diana on Mother's Day in the U.K.

On Sunday, the 43-year-old royal took to social media to share a never-before-seen photo of him and the late princess.

"Remembering my mother, today and every day. Thinking of all those who are remembering someone they love today. Happy Mother's Day. W," he captioned the photo on Instagram, which featured a young William and Diana in a field of flowers.

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Princess Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997. At the time, the 36-year-old was being chased by paparazzi in Paris. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur, Henri Paul, also perished in the crash. Prince William was 15 years old at the time of his mother's death.

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In a 2024, two-part documentary, "Prince William: We Can End Homelessness," royal experts spoke at length about Diana's impact on both Prince William and his brother Prince Harry.

"Princess Diana has been influencing Prince William a lot," Roya Nikkhah, royals editor for The Sunday Times and co-host of the podcast "The Royals with Roya and Kate," told Fox News Digital at the time.

"What's very interesting is you hear him in his own words saying that he's been thinking a lot about, 'What do people want my role to be? What do people want from me?'" she shared. "And he says, 'I've been thinking about that a lot recently and taking guidance and inspiration from my mother now more than ever before.'"

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"Diana's vision - taking her young sons to homeless shelters when they were very young, showing them the other side of life, her pioneering work in all sorts of areas like mental health, HIV and AIDS and homelessness - it's had a big impact on him," said Nikkhah. "It's still shaping his role now as heir to the throne and as a father. He talks about how she's introduced him and Harry to those issues and how he's starting to introduce his children to them as well."

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"She's still got a huge influence," Nikkhah added.

In the documentary, William recalled how, growing up, his mother took him and Prince Harry to The Passage, which works to end homelessness.

"I was a bit anxious as to what to expect," the royal recalled, as quoted by People magazine. "My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed and having a laugh and joking with everyone. I remember at the time kind of thinking, 'Well, if everyone's not got a home, they're all going to be really sad.' But it was incredible how happy an environment it was."