Prince Harry on Friday led tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, on the 10th anniversary of her death with a deeply emotional eulogy describing his mother as a “guardian, friend and protector” to him and Prince William.
Whatever her public image, to her sons Diana was “quite simply the best mother in the world”, Harry told a memorial service at Guards Chapel, near Buckingham Palace, that was attended by the Queen, Prince Charles and around 500 others.
At times struggling to contain his emotions, Harry spoke of his and William’s feelings about the car crash in the early hours of August 31, 1997, that killed Diana.
“It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night,” he said, remembering also the families of Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul, who died with the princess when the limousine struck a pillar in a Paris underpass. “We both think of her every day,” said Harry, now a 22-year-old army officer. “We speak about her and laugh about our memories.”
The guest list
The guests include Prime Minister Gordon Brown and wife Sarah, Tony and Cherie Blair and another former prime minister John Major. Singers Cliff Richard, Elton John,  Bryan Adams, photographer Mario Testino, along with representatives of dozens of charities supported by Diana were also invited.
William and Harry, who smiled broadly and laughed as they greeted people on the chapel steps, each wore a blue suit with coloured tie.
Others were more flamboyant — among them Sarah Brown, dressed in a vivid lilac coat and matching feathered hat, and the colourfully dressed Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Before Prince Harry spoke, Prince William, now 25 and also an army officer, gave a brief reading from the  Holy Bible.
At 11 am, staff and shoppers at Harrods observed two minute’s silence, presided over by the department store’s owner, Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed.
Fayed was not invited to the memorial service, although his daughter, Camilla Fayed, attended.
As well as Fayed, also notably absent from the service was the Duchess of Cornwall, who announced last week that she would stay away because her presence would be an unwelcome distraction.
Camilla keeps off
William and Harry had invited their stepmother, but others felt the presence of the woman who, as Camilla Parker Bowles, conducted a long affair with Prince Charles while he was married to Diana would have been inappropriate.
On Friday morning, fans of Diana placed bouquets outside Kensington Palace, her London home. Others left flowers by the gates of Althorp estate, near Northampton, which was Diana’s family home.