Prince Harry has spoken wistfully of how he would have loved his wife, Meghan, to have met his mother.
And now the former actress is to make an emotional ‘pilgrimage’ to the burial place of Diana, Princess of Wales.
I hear that the Duchess of Sussex is to visit Althorp, the ancestral seat of Diana’s family in Northamptonshire, for the first time.
She and Harry are expected to bring baby Archie on the poignant trip, which is due to take place around the time of the 22nd anniversary of the Princess’s death on August 31.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex will join Prince Harry to make an emotional ‘pilgrimage’ to the burial place of Diana, Princess of Wales
‘Harry wants Meghan to see his mother’s resting place,’ a royal source tells me.
He and Prince William used to visit Althorp, the home of their uncle and aunt, Earl and Countess Spencer, twice a year: on Diana’s birthday, July 1; and on the anniversary of her death.
However, the brothers are understood not to have visited since what would have been Diana’s 56th birthday in 2017, when they attended a private ceremony led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Harry, along with Prince William, used to visit Althorp, the home of their uncle and aunt, Earl and Countess Spencer, twice a year: on Diana’s birthday, July 1; and on the anniversary of her death
Harry has maintained a close bond with Diana’s family, and her sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, were included in the family portrait taken at Windsor Castle after Archie’s christening last month.
When Harry proposed to Meghan in 2017, he gave her a custom-made ring which featured two diamonds from his mother’s jewellery collection.
The Prince said poignantly of his mother: ‘I think she would have been best friends with Meghan’
And in the television interview that followed their engagement announcement, Meghan responded: ‘In not being able to meet his mum, it’s so important for me to know that she’s a part of this with us.’
The Prince said poignantly of his mother: ‘I think she would have been best friends with Meghan.’
The couple remembered the Princess on Mothering Sunday by posting an image of Archie’s tiny foot above a bed of forget-me-nots, which are said to have been Diana’s favourite flower.
And they recently paid another tribute when they shared an inspirational quote from Diana on social media: ‘Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.’
The Princess is buried on a private island on the 14,000-acre estate that can be accessed only by boat. It is not open to the thousands of visitors who flock to Althorp House each summer.
Earl Spencer and Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Kiss that seals Lady Kitty’s romance
Lady Kitty Spencer has raised eyebrows among her social set through her romance with Michael Lewis, a fashion tycoon 32 years her senior.
But these photographs from the French Riviera prove their relationship is anything but a passing fancy. Princess Diana’s 28-year-old niece was seen kissing Lewis after leaving Club 55 in St Tropez. ‘They are a happy couple,’ I am told.
Lewis, who has three adult children, was born in South Africa, where Lady Kitty grew up with her mother, Victoria, the first wife of Earl Spencer.
Reputed to be worth £80 million, Lewis is five years the earl’s senior, but Lady Kitty does like older men. Her last boyfriend was 48-year-old Italian property magnate Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro.
Lady Kitty Spencer has raised eyebrows among her social set through her romance with Michael Lewis, a fashion tycoon 32 years her senior
Fifty Shades Sam shoots naked husband Aaron…
Sam Taylor-Johnson (left), 52, admitted she struggled keeping her composure while filming her naked husband Aaron (right)
She directed Fifty Shades Of Grey, so Sam Taylor-Johnson can hardly claim to be unfamiliar with nudity on set.
But the 52-year-old admits she struggled to keep her composure while making her latest film, A Million Little Pieces, in which she directs her naked 29-year-old husband, Aaron (pictured right with Sam), in an act of love.
‘It is a powerful scene, and I am professional,’ Taylor-Johnson says at an event in London, before explaining that it was the timing of the shoot which discomfited her.
‘I turned to my assistant director and said: “Really? You have to schedule this on Valentine’s Day?”.’
Indeed, he did: the film, made ‘on a shoestring’, had to be shot in 20 days.
His charming stories about Botswana’s answer to Miss Marple — Mma Precious Ramotswe of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency — have sold 25 million copies, but Alexander McCall Smith is weary of the snobbery he encounters in the literary world.
Sniffy and snooty’ is how he describes his critics. ‘Some people have been very condescending to me,’ the author says.
‘But I find it strange, the idea that a writer is expected to be grim and bleak.
‘We’ve had letters from psychiatrists who’ve prescribed my books for depression, and I’ve heard Mma Ramotswe has helped people in difficult times — during chemo, for example — and I’m touched by that.’
