By Katherine Tinsley
1:57pm PDT, Aug 29, 2025
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Before
Princess Diana died in 1997, the older of her two sons,
Prince William, made a promise to her that touched her so deeply, it left her in tears. Tragically, the future king will never get the opportunity to fulfill his promise to the late Princess of Wales due to her untimely death at 36.
Keep reading for more on the vow a young William made to his mummy…MORE:
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According to Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, a young Prince William promised to reinstate his mother's formal title — which she lost when she divorced King Charles III — once he claimed the throne. "Don't worry, Mummy, I will give [the Her Royal Highness title] back to you one day when I am king," a 14-year-old William said, according to Burrell, per
The Mirror. The conversation left Diana — who was said to be distraught by the loss of her formal title and the status that came with it — in tears. She died the following year.
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Prince William — who's said that Princess Diana's humanitarian work is a major "inspiration and guidance" for him — has yet to confirm or deny whether he really made the promise to his late mother.
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Prince William and Prince Harry both support philanthropic endeavors that align with Princess Diana's legacy. Currently, Prince William is working to end homelessness in the U.K., as Diana was the patron of the housing organization Centrepoint. In the documentary We Can End Homelessness, William shared that he speaks to his children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — about housing inequality in the same way that Diana spoke to him and Harry about it. "When I was very small, my mother started talking about homelessness, much like I do now with my children on the school run," he said.
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In Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, Prince William expressed how honored he was to be Princess Diana's child. "I give thanks that I was lucky enough to be her son and that I got to know her for the 15 years that I did," he said. "She set us up really well. She gave us the right tools and had prepared us well for life in the best way she could not obviously knowing what was going to happen."
