Camilla Jessen
William recalls childhood memory of singing with Diana.
Prince William has shared a personal memory of his late mother that still resonates today.
The Prince of Wales spoke candidly about how music played a meaningful role in family life.
Car rides home
Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when Prince William was 15 and Prince Harry was 12.
Despite her global profile, William recalled intimate family moments that helped him and his brother cope with everyday anxieties.
Speaking on Apple Fitness+’s Time to Walk podcast, William said Diana used music to distract them during drives back to boarding school.
According to The Mirror, these journeys were often filled with singing as a way to soften the return to routine.
“When I was younger, Harry and I, we were at boarding school. And my mother used to play all sorts of songs to kind of while away the anxiety of going back to school,” William said.
One song stands out
William revealed that one track in particular has stayed with him over the years.
“And one of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I still, to this day, still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner’s ‘The Best’,” he said.
He described how the family would sing along in the car, turning the journey into what he called “a real family moment.” William added that Diana would sing loudly from the driver’s seat, sometimes joined by a police officer accompanying them.
“You’d be singing and listening to the music right the way out into the gates of school,” he said, explaining that only then did the reality of returning to school set in.
Following her footsteps
William has spoken before about how Diana shaped his approach to parenting. That influence continues today as he raises his own children.
Recently, the Prince of Wales took his 12-year-old son, Prince George, to The Passage’s annual Christmas party. The homelessness charity holds special meaning for William, as Diana introduced him to the organisation when he was a child.
George signed the visitors’ book on the same page his father and grandmother had signed in December 1993.
Sources: The Mirror, Apple Fitness+
