If you were William, how would you handle the Diana Legacy Awards from now on?

[Prydddan]

Would you distance yourself from it, on the grounds that it provides an opportunity for your estranged brother to take a poke at you?

Carry on, grey rocking the antics from Montecito?

Something else I can't think of?

(And before anyone rocks up to tell me to get a life, find something to do, take up a hobby - I'm having a quiet day today where I'll do what I fancy, so go take your own advice.)

If that is the case @QueenOfTheLabyrinth then it is awful. An absolute lack of care for time people are kept waiting.

What does it take for people to see Harry for who he really is?

Yes I didn't like William calling his mum paranoid and in affect silencing her. I saw the interview (live) and I'm in no doubt she wanted to speak out and get some things off her chest - she had important things to say.

To what extent do you consider the manipulation led by Bashir may have influenced Diana?

You need to separate what she wanted to say, and her right to say it, with the way she was induced to say it. That interview will be forever tainted with the ways in which Bashir persuaded her that people around her that who were there to protect her were betraying her. And his lies about the threat that Prince Charles posed over her future survival. If that did not result in paranoia, then what is the conclusion for her parting ways with her extremely experienced royal security staff and putting herself in harm's way? What are her boys supposed to think about that? That she deliberately and frivolously decided to put her safety into the dubious hands of Al Fayed just for the heck of it? With not a thought about the potential dangers she might be in trusting him and the knock on effect on her children? The understandable paranoia that would result in being fed seriously fucked up lies (backed up by forged documentation) about the people around you is actually kinder than the alternative proposition.

Diana was also primed from childhood to be vulnerable in this way. She was already a damaged person before she married Charles, thanks to the conduct of her dreadful parents. She may not have been mentally ill, but she was incredibly vulnerable, and it not dishonouring her memory to acknowledge that. It was also the thing that made her extremely compassionate and sensitive to the vulnerabilities in others.

To what extent do you consider the manipulation led by Bashir may have influenced Diana?

I don't know exactly but the real damage and harm came from the marriage (there were three in this marriage ..it was crowded). Glad she got the chance to speak it in her own words, and glad we have it on record.

These awards should be phased out. She is long dead and really almost forgotten- or should be. I don't think she has much of a relevant legacy left now.

But she was paranoid? she removed her palace security trashed an innocent girls reputation believed the bbc over allegations about her ex husband she was completely unsupported and alone and relies heavily on her sons especially the elder for emotional support which he couldn't give her because he was a child

I dont get people making her a Saint him a sinner her son an awful person because he had therapy and got on with his life her other son a saint because he can't get on with his life

She is long dead leave it alone

Exactly. It's not supporting the memory or trashing Diana to deny she was a flawed person, in a vulnerable position, preyed upon by an unprofessional journalist.

@Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar
"You need to separate what she wanted to say, and her right to say it, with the way she was induced to say it. "
But maybe without the Bashir lies, she may have conducted the interview in a slightly different way.
He made her frightened; I read somewhere she thought she was being bugged and took up the floorboards; that she was being watched - so she dispensed with the Royal Protection officers, That she was being controlled, etc.
Bashir (and his accomplices) falsified bank statements, and I think some other documents.
So, her interview may have been very different.
I always gave her a pass over her intention of doing the interview. Her own parents had divorced and her mother had lost custody of the children, so I am sure this was at the back of her mind, and the reason why she wanted the public sympathy.

I haven't read the full thread but don't really understand why the heir to the throne should be made to hang about for five hours waiting for his estranged brother (who has been repeatedly foul about said heir to the throne) to get off the ski slope to do his half-arsed video call.

I can only imagine that those suggesting William wait about for Harry to deign to do his bit have a very limited understanding of how monarchy works. It is extremely hierarchical - senior royals do not wait about for lickspittle gobshites lower down the family pecking order.

Your comment is actually the closest to what I think. There are enough other schemes around to cover any gap left by retiring the Diana Awards. The eventnitself must be an ordeal for William now; he certainly can't be looking forward to next year's ceremony.

Yes. She is barely known to most recipients and, if she is, it is for being famous and dying rather than anything else. The awards have become all about the rift between Harry and William. Much better to draw them to a close or call them The Princess of Wales awards and pass them to Kate.