Prince William, Prince Harry give rare joint statement in honor of Princess Diana ahead of death anniversary
The princes have allegedly been estranged since ‘Megxit’
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Prince William and Prince Harry joined forces in a rare statement pertaining to a statue meant to honor their mother, Princess Diana.
The statue, said their statement, was first “commissioned to mark the twentieth anniversary of her death and recognize her positive impact in the UK and around the world” in February 2017.
William, 38, and Harry, 35, revealed in the statement the new date in which the statue will appear in Kensington Palace, where Diana once lived.
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“The statue will be installed in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace on 1st July 2021, marking The Princess’s 60th birthday,” the Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex said.
They added: “The Princes hope that the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on their mother’s life and her legacy.”
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Prince William and Prince Harry released the statement on Friday, days before their mother’s 23rd death anniversary.
"Our mother touched so many lives," they concluded.
The Princess of Wales passed away on Aug. 31, 1997, at age 36 from injuries she sustained in a Paris car crash.
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The princes commissioned Ian Rank-Broadley to sculpt the statue. He was the same artist who designed Queen Elizabeth’s image that has appeared on British coins since 1998.
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This is the first joint statement the princes have made since Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped down as senior members of the British royal family and later settled into life in Santa Barbara, Calif.
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The brothers have reportedly had a lot of tension between them because of Harry’s new life in America.
True Royalty TV has recently released a special titled “The Royal Beat: Finding Freedom” which analyzes the recent bombshell book titled "Finding Freedom" written by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand that has rocked Buckingham Palace.
Host Kate Thornton, who sat down with Scobie for the special, told Fox News that the documentary aims to give the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a voice after it had been silenced by ruthless U.K. tabloids.
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She shared that the writers were also determined to investigate what led to Harry’s alleged falling out with his older brother, who is second in line to the throne.
“I can only imagine [what caused the great hurt for William] is the loss -- a temporary loss,” she explained. “I am sure it’s a temporary loss. And that’s touched upon in our TV special. These guys will repair. They will heal. But right now there are fractures quite clearly within their relationship. They’re not even living on the same continent. And that’s going to hurt because they… were shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother.”
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But that doesn’t mean to say that they can't heal the "rift," Thornton continued.
“Because at the end of the day, when you work together and you are family members, I think it’s an extraordinary expectation to expect nobody’s ever going to fall out and nothing’s ever going to go wrong," she pointed out. "And that you’re not going to butt heads."
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A more modern royal family may be good, but it will not come without some pitfalls.
"And what we want for our royal family is for them to be progressive, it’s for them to have an appetite to modernize," Thornton said. "And you can’t expect them to do that without hitting a few bumps in the road. And I think that’s pretty much what’s happening here.”
FOX News’ Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.