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Prince William is reportedly unwilling to take part in a new film about his late mother, Princess Diana, amid concerns that the project could create another source of tension between him and Prince Harry.
The proposed production was expected to mark the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death, with Netflix reportedly considered one of the leading contenders to be involved.
According to The Sunday Times, William, who was 15 when his mother died, does not want to find himself being “pitted” against his younger brother through competing projects about Diana.
The Prince of Wales is instead said to prefer commemorating next year’s anniversary privately. He is also reportedly of the view that his final public comments on the subject were made in 2017, when the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death was observed.
Harry, however, is believed to have received approaches concerning several potential projects. The Duke of Sussex has a “first look” arrangement with Netflix, the streaming platform that released a six-part series featuring Harry and Meghan in 2022.
The situation differs from the brothers’ approach a decade earlier. For the 20th anniversary of their mother’s death, William and Harry worked together on two documentaries that were broadcast by the BBC and ITV.
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In the ITV documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, William reflected on the enduring influence his mother has had on his life, saying her legacy remains with him “every single day”. Harry, meanwhile, described the shock of losing Diana as being as sudden as an “earthquake”.
William returned to his mother’s legacy in a 2024 ITV documentary, pointing to Diana’s work tackling homelessness as a source of “inspiration and guidance” for his own efforts in the area.
The Prince of Wales has also explained how he keeps Diana’s memory present within his own family. When speaking about his mother to his three children, he revealed that he refers to her as “Granny Diana”.
These reports have emerged shortly after the publication of Earl Spencer’s memoir, which included a series of sharp criticisms of the King.
William is believed to have received no advance warning that the book was going to be published. In the memoir, Earl Spencer also disclosed that Harry had previously approached him about appearing in a documentary focusing on Diana.
Among the claims made in Earl Spencer’s book was an allegation that the King had remarked “we’ll forget her soon enough” while referring to Diana in the period following her death.
Buckingham Palace pushed back against the account in a firmly worded response, suggesting that “fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory”.
When People Magazine asked Spencer how his nephews had responded to the memoir, he said Harry was “completely fine about it”. However, he chose not to reveal how William had reacted to the book.
William and Harry were last seen publicly coming together to commemorate their mother in 2021, when they attended the unveiling of a statue of Diana. Their appearance came after Harry and Meghan’s widely discussed interview with Oprah Winfrey.
