On the day Princess Diana would have turned 60, all thoughts should have been on her as she unveiled a monument in her honor.

Instead, the event in the sink garden adjacent to Kensington Palace was marked by the dispute between her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, who had traveled from California.

In the bulletins, the event, which was kept private due to the pandemic, was always linked to the fact that it would bring the brothers together for the first time since Prince Philips' funeral in April.

Neither Charles nor the Queen attended

Gina Thomas

Features correspondent based in London.

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    Neither Diana's former husband, Prince Charles, nor the Queen attended the celebration on Thursday.

    The Duchess of Cambridge, William's wife, tactfully stayed away from her - probably in view of her sister-in-law Meghan, who had stayed in California.

    This made the event more like a family gathering of the Spencers than the Windsors.

    The princess’s two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were present, as were her younger brother Charles, ninth Earl Spencer, who had vowed in his funeral speech that Diana's blood relatives would do anything to lovingly guide William and Harry in their favor they don't suffocate in duty and tradition, but "sing freely" as they wanted.

    Princes William and Harry had been planning the remembrance of the life and legacy of their mother, who died in an accident almost 24 years ago, for four years. A specially set up committee awarded the contract to the sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, whose profile head of the Queen has adorned British coins since 1998. The design for the statue at the western end of the cave garden, shielded from view by hedges, which Diana was particularly fond of visiting, remained a secret until the very end. Beyond the hedge, just a few meters away, the young Queen Victoria sits on her marble throne in front of the palace in which she was born. In her coronation robe she embodies those stiff monarchical qualities that Diana undermined as the "Queen of Hearts".

    Diana's statue, which she depicts in the last phase of her life when she became involved in humanitarian causes, is said to embody her warmth, elegance and energy. For the memorial, the steps of the cave garden installed in 1908 were simplified. Five gardeners have laid out the new plants around the water basin since October 2019. More than 4000 pastel-colored flowers, including lavender, sweet peas, roses and anemones, as well as the forget-me-not, loved by Diana, replace the white garden designed on the 20th anniversary of Diana's death four years ago.

    The brothers were relaxed about the unveiling and talked animatedly with one another. Those in the know had downplayed speculations about a reconciliation between the princes. William and Harry, who fell out over Meghan, wanted to act professionally and disregard everything else because at this moment it was not about them, but about their mother, said the journalist Omid Scobie, who as the mouthpiece of the Duke and the Duchess of Sussex being considered. After all, William and Harry are said to have exchanged text messages about the English football victory against Germany in the past few days.