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Princess Diana wasn’t your typical royal mom. The late Princess of Wales kicked off her heels and left her tiara at home to compete in a mothers’ race at her son Prince Harry ’s school back in June of 1991. Vintage footage from the event recently surfaced showing Diana running alongside fellow moms during Wetherby School Sports Day—and royal fans cannot get enough of the People’s Princess. “No shoes, in a skirt, breaking protocols to be an amazing mom!” one social media user tweeted, while another wrote: “A visual representation of how Princess Diana always went all in for her boys.”
The Princess is seen in the video sprinting barefoot while dressed in a skirt and blazer. Prince Harry, then-age six, also competed that same day in a potato sack race and running like his mother. Diana participated in the sports day on multiple occasions, including in 1990, 1989, and 1988 during which she came in first place. In the biography William & Harry, author Ingrid Seward wrote that Prince William celebrated his mother’s first place win chanting: “My mummy’s won, my mummy’s won.”
Diana wasn’t the only royal parent to take part in her sons’ school activities. Prince Charles participated in the dads’ race in 1989 and 1990. However unlike his first wife, the future King did not place in the top. According to Ingrid, Charles opted to skip sports day in 1991 “citing the bad back he had sustained in a polo accident.”
While royal watchers might be surprised to see a Princess running sans shoes, Prince William has previously spoken out about his mother being informal. In the HBO documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, William opened up about his late mom saying, “She was very informal and really enjoyed the laughter and the fun,” adding, “She understood that there was a real life outside of palace walls.” Harry noted that his mother, who passed away in 1997, “was one of the naughtiest parents.“