In 2010, the year before Prince William and then Princess Kate Middleton became engaged and married, Prince William and Prince Harry gave an interview to ITV, saying that wherever they were, whoever they were with, if she were with us now, what would she be thinking and doing, especially always I wonder,” he said of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car accident on August 31, 1997. “If Princess Diana were sitting here laughing, if she were sticking her tongue out in the back, if she were playing soccer with her children ....... If she were here right now ...... would be the thought that sustains us every day.”

That thought has no doubt grown stronger as William and Harry's respective families have grown. William told Kate, whom he met in 2016, four years after Princess Diana's death when they were both freshmen at the University of St. Andrews, that he wished he had met her: “Time will tell. Even now, 20 years after my mother's death, I still miss her every day.” He told GQ magazine the following year, in 2017, “I wanted to meet Princess Catherine and see my children grow up. It saddens me that she never will, that they will never know her.” [Paul Burrell was Princess Diana's butler, employed by the royal family for 21 years. He told The Sun that William is “leading Kate into Diana's footsteps,” adding that Kate “hasn't done one step wrong.”

Of Kate, who now holds the title of Princess of Wales, made famous by her mother-in-law in the 1980s and 1990s, Burrell said, “If my mother-in-law had anything to say about the way she [Kate] dresses and acts, she would say she is doing an incredible job.” The public adores her."

Burrell said of William that he is ‘fiercely protective’ of Kate and that his protective nature ‘absolutely’ comes from the loss of his mother when he was only 15. 'With William by her side, Kate is safe. Because he will take care of Kate and he won't let anyone hurt her,” Burrell said.

If Princess Diana had had the chance to meet Kate, Ingrid Sward, royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said Princess Diana would have “recognized how good Kate is” to her eldest son: “Kate does everything right and is gorgeous. I think she liked Kate a lot because she looks,” Sward told the Daily Mail. And I think she recognized how good Kate was for William because he is so emotional and difficult.” [William and Kate share Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, while Harry and Meghan Markle share Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

“A goddess-like grandmother, no doubt,” Sward said.