If Princess Diana were alive she’d have dragged her warring sons together to resolve their differences, says the Edward White, the author of a new book exploring her enduring legacy – especially with Gen Z
Although it’s been 27 years since Princess Dianadied, her grip on the public imagination grows stronger with every year that passes as Gen Z teens and twenty-somethings become the latest devotees to fall under her spell.
Many see her complicated, emotional personality living on in Prince Harry, who recently made headlines with a BBC interview in which he said, “I would love reconciliation with my family”. It certainly begs the question of how Diana would have responded to the enduring tensions between her sons.
“Doubtless, she’d have been horrified,” says author Edward White, who has explored her enduring appeal in his new book Dianaworld. “But her sons are arguing about what their mother’s true legacy is. Diana said that she was trying to raise a future king that would ensure the monarchy survived into the 21st century – and William is trying to do a Diana reboot of the monarchy, combining the best of his mother and his grandmother.“
But the other faction of Diana-ists could say that Harry is the real defender of her true legacy. “There’s something about Diana that encourages people to read whatever they want to read into her. The way people can look at Diana as embodying totally differing sides of an argument even applies to her sons,” he says.
But Edward is confident that Diana would have got the brothers in the same room to thrash out their differences. And, though he considers Diana and Meghan to be “extremely different people”, he believes that Diana would have warmed to her daughter-in-law.
