Prince William and Prince Harry could end up making rival films about their mother Princess Diana, to mark the 30th anniversary of her death in two years’ time.
Representatives for Prince Harry’s Archewell production company are already talking to TV industry insiders about a new documentary about Diana, to mark the 30th anniversary of her death, The Royalist can reveal. William will be uneasy about Harry “claiming her legacy” and will feel bound to respond with his own contribution if Harry goes ahead, a source said.
One senior executive at an independent production house in the U.K. told the Daily Beast: “Harry is looking to do a series about Diana in 2027. They want to get the right partners and we have had a conversation with them. I’m sure other production companies have too. An inside account of the implosion of Charles and Diana’s marriage and Harry’s story of Diana’s death and its aftermath would be the TV sensation of all time.”
Neither William nor Harry’s team would comment on the claims, but a friend of William’s told The Royalist, “The film the brothers made for the 20th anniversary was meant to be the last word. William made that very clear at the time. But of course things have changed since then. If Harry is now going to do another massive Netflix show effectively claiming her legacy, William will have to fight back, whether that’s with an interview or a documentary of his own. The whole situation is just very sad.”
The friend said William would be extremely unlikely to work with the BBC which he believes harmed his mother with the deceptive tactics used in its infamous Panorama interview. “It would be ridiculous to do it with the BBC,” they said.
The possibility of a personal film about Diana anchored by Harry is believed to be a major part of the enthusiasm on Netflix’s part for keeping Harry and Meghan on their books, with a new first-look deal signed earlier this month.
This is an edited version of The Royalist newsletter on Substack. If you want a longer take on this exclusive story, plus more royal gossip, scoops and scandal, head over there and sign up!
Any intervention from Harry that questioned the official verdict on Diana’s death—that it was caused by her driver Henri Paul being drunk—would be sensational.
It also could absolutely happen.
In his memoir, Spare, Harry said the official explanation of her death “was an insult. Fanciful, riddled with factual errors and gaping logical holes, it raised more questions than it answered.”
In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, he hinted again at what I repeatedly have been told is his deeply held personal belief that there was more to his mother’s death than a speeding drunk driver, saying: “I don’t want history to repeat itself. I think… the majority [of people] also don’t want history to repeat itself. Through the disclosure process, I’ve discovered that some people want history to repeat itself, which is pretty dark.”
He also said in his book that he had seen secret government files about her death.
Harry has long sought to position himself as the inheritor and guarantor of Diana’s legacy, most recently via a trip to Angola where he recreated her famous walk through a minefield.
Harry has also repeatedly invoked the phrase, “I am my mother’s son,” seemingly to frame himself as Diana’s spiritual heir. He used the phrase when launching Archewell in 2021, casting the foundation as the continuation of Diana’s humanitarian mission. He returned to it in 2022 at the Invictus Games, telling People magazine, “I honor my mother in everything I do. I am my mother’s son.”
In the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, he reflected, “My mum certainly made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son.”
The post EXCLUSIVE: Prince William and Prince Harry Could Make Dueling Documentaries About Princess Diana appeared first on The Daily Beast.
