Prince William and Prince Harry joined forces Friday to issue a rare joint statement regarding a statue commissioned three years ago to honor their mother, Princess Diana.
The statement, issued by Kensington Palace, said that the statue will be installed on what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday: July 1, 2021.
The palace said that the statue, which was commissioned on the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, is meant to “recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world.” Its progress has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
It was designed by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley and which will be installed in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace, where Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement.
“The princes hope that the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on their mother’s life and her legacy,” the statement concluded.
Princess Diana was killed on August 31, 1997 after a car in which she was a passenger crashed in Paris. The wreck also killed her partner at the time, Dodi al-Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul. Bodyguard Trevor Rees was the only survivor.
William was just 15 at the time, while Harry was 12.
Both princes have spoken in recent years about the impact that their mother’s death had on them. The Duke of Cambridge previously said that Diana’s passing still leaves him in “shock.”
“I still feel 20 years later about my mother, I still have shock within me 20 years later,” William said in the 2017 BBC documentary “Mind Over Marathon,” which also featured Prince Harry and Kate Middleton.
“People go, ‘Shock can’t last that long,’ but it does,” he added. “You never get over it ― it’s such an unbelievably big moment in your life that it never leaves you. You just learn to deal with it.”
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