Princess Diana would be heartbroken over the years-long rift between her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, the late royal’s former personal trainer claims.
In a new interview with The Daily Mail, Diana’s former fitness guru Jenni Rivett explained that the divide between William, 42, and Harry, 40, would have been especially hard for the late royal.
“Diana loved her boys; they were everything to her,” Rivett told the outlet in a story published on June 15. “She would have been devastated at what is going on between them today.”
Rivett served as the Princess of Wales’ workout instructor and confidant for six years prior to her death. (Diana died in August 1997 at age 36 from injuries sustained in a car crash in Paris. Her then-partner Dodi Fayed also lost his life in the accident.)
‘Sometimes Diana would tell me things so personal,” Rivett continued, adding that she always tried to give the People’s Princess “the very best advice” that she could.
“She didn’t want this life,” Rivett added. “She didn’t want any of it. All she ever wanted was to be a good wife and mother.”
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In 2019, Harry confirmed rumors of a rift between him and William, revealing in the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey that he and his brother had “good days” and “bad days.”
“Part of this role and part of this job, this family, being under the pressure that it’s under, inevitably stuff happens,” he said at the time. “But look, we’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers.”
A year later, things reportedly went from bad to worse when Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, made the controversial decision to step back from their positions as senior members of the royal family.
“Much will continue to be said about that,” Harry said of their exit in a March 2021 televised CBS primetime special. “You know, as I’ve said before, I love William to bits. He’s my brother. We’ve been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience.”
“But we — you know, we’re on — we’re on different paths,” he continued. “The relationship is space, at the moment. And, you know, time heals all things, hopefully.”
The sit-down interview reportedly caused William and Harry’s already chilly relationship to “hit rock bottom,” Us Weekly reported.
William “doesn’t know who [Harry] is anymore and the trust between them is strained,” a source told the outlet, noting that the future king had been “burned so many times” by the Duke of Sussex’s vocal criticism. “They’ll never recover from the damage that has been done.”
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Rivett also touched on spending time with Diana’s sons while working with the beloved royal in the ‘90s during her interview, recalling that Harry was always “the naughty one.”
‘On occasions I would be called up to Kensington Palace at the last minute, and once or twice I took [my then-young daughter] Kirsti with me. I remember William and Harry fighting over who was going to hold her,” shared Rivett. “The boys would often muscle in on Diana’s workout sessions too, and she’d scold them and order them out of the studio if they didn’t behave.”
Diana shared William and Harry with King Charles III. They separated in 1992 after 11 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in August 1996 — just one year before her death.