Same path. Prince William compared the Queen’s procession to Princess Diana’s funeral. The newly appointed Prince of Wales talked to the public during a walkabout at Sandringham Castle and one mourner revealed that Prince William talked about how the funerals were similar.
The Telegraph reported about the interactions between Prince Harry and the mourners. “He said how difficult it was yesterday and how it reminded him of his mum’s funeral,” said mourner Jane Wells. “Catherine said it’s just been such a difficult time for all of them, for the whole family.” Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, just over 25 years before the Queen passed away on September 8, 2022.
On September 14, 2022, the Queen’s coffin made a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where the Queen will lay in state for four days before her funeral on September 19, 2022. The Royal Family walked behind the coffin. The path was the exact same route during Princess Diana’s procession in 1997. The then-15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry walked behind their mother’s coffin in the same exact manner.
Another mourner talked about how Prince William is trying to keep it together for his kids after the death of their great-grandmother. “I told him how I work at a school and how it’s been a strange year celebrating the Jubilee and now it’s all changed and we are talking about this,” Gee told People on September 12, 2022. “He spoke about George, Charlotte and Louis, saying that they were trying to keep some sense of continuity for them at school and keep things as normal as possible.” She continued, “Catherine thanked me, and she said that all the nation were feeling it,” she says. “They were both very kind and gentle and genuine. It was very special—definitely a moment I will always treasure.”
Before the procession, Prince William and his brother Prince Harry had a private dinner in Buckingham Palace with their wives Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. On September 10, 2022, the couples reunited for the first time in a while for a walkabout outside of Kensington Palace to look at the tributes for the Queen. During the procession, Prince Harry was not wearing his uniform unlike his brother and his father because he stepped down from his Royal duties back in 2020. Instead, he wore a black suit with his military medals attached to them.
Image: Courtesy of Random House.
For more about the British royal family, check out Sally Bedell Smith’s 2012 biography, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch
. The New York Times bestseller, which includes the “real story” behind several storylines featured in Netflix’s The Crown, follows Queen Elizabeth II’s life from her childhood as the “heiress presumptive” to her father, King George VI; to the moment he met her husband, Prince Philip, when she was 13 years old; to her ascension to the throne at 25 years old in 1952. Elizabeth the Queen, which also includes interviews with Buckingham Palace sources and never-before-revealed documents, provides a deep dive into the Queen’s legacy as one of the most famous monarchs in recent history.
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