Prince William and Prince Harry ’s children never had the chance to meet their paternal grandmother, Princess Diana , but they know who she is and refer to her by different names. The Duke of Sussex revealed on his Apple TV+ series, The Me You Can’t See, that one of his son Archie Harrison ’s first words was “grandma.”
© Sussex Royal“I’ve got a photo up in his nursery and it was one of the first words that he said, apart from ‘mama,’ ‘papa,’ it was then ‘grandma.’ ‘Grandma Diana,’” Harry said. “It’s the sweetest thing, but at the same time, it makes me really sad because she should be here.”
While Archie calls the Princess of Wales “Grandma Diana,” the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children refer to her as “Granny Diana.” Every Mother’s Day, Prince George , Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis make cards for their father remembering Princess Diana.
“Dear Granny Diana,” Princess Charlotte wrote in her 2021 card. “I am thinking of you on Mother’s Day. I love you very much. Papa is missing you. Lots of love Charlotte.” Meanwhile, Prince George penned, “Dear Granny Diana, Happy Happy Mother’s Day. I love you very much and think of you always. Sending lots of love from George.”
© Getty ImagesPrince William has previously spoken about keeping his mother’s memory alive for his children by “constantly talking about Granny Diana.” “We’ve got more photos up around the house now of her and we talk about her a bit,” he said in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy .
The Duke of Cambridge added, “It’s hard, because obviously Catherine didn’t know her so she cannot really provide that level of detail, so I do, regularly putting George and Charlotte to bed, talk about her and just try and remind them that there are two grandmothers, there were two grandmothers, in their lives and so it’s important that they know who she was and that she existed.”
