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William and Harry fight for their mother's reputation
Last updated at 00:52am on 15.06.07
Princess Diana with a young Harry
Princes William and Harry say they are forced to repeatedly defend their mother's reputation from attacks by people who have forgotten the "amazing things" she achieved.
The brothers, speaking in a BBC interview in the run-up to the tenth anniversary of Diana's death, said that "not a day goes past" that they do not think of her and believe they have a duty to protect her legacy from critics.
As the anniversary of her death approaches, a number of new books and documentaries have delved into her private life but the young royals called on people to remember her public work.
Prince William said: "After 10 years there's been a rumbling of people bringing up the bad and over time people seem to forget - or have forgotten - all the amazing things she did and what an amazing person she was."
Speaking in the run-up to the major memorial concert for the Princess, which takes place on July 1, William said: "We felt that this was the best way of bringing that back to life and letting people remember all the good things about her because she's not here to defend herself when she gets criticised and so we want to do that instead and this is the best way of us getting that across to people."
The comments came after they recently launched a "heartfelt" plea to preserve their mother's memory and dignity in death, by trying to get Channel 4 to remove controversial images of the crash in which she was killed from documentary.
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Opening their hearts: William and Harry talked to DJ Fearne Cotton
William paid an emotional tribute to his mother, saying: "She was wonderful and sadly there's no amount of words that either Harry or I could tell you now that could actually portray that.
"We were so lucky to have her as our mother and there's not a day that goes past when we don't think about her and miss her influence because she was a massive example to both of us."
The two princes were interviewed by television and Radio 1 presenter Fearne Cotton for the BBC, ahead of their concert which will feature Elton John, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and Will Young.
But there was continuing disquiet that the BBC had "dumbed down" its approach to the landmark interview by choosing the Radio 1 DJ to conduct the it rather than one of its more respected broadcasters.
Miss Cotton, who is 25 and has described herself as a "mouthy little girl", got the nod ahead of respected broadcasters such as Huw Edwards and royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell.
This lead to claims that the corporation had treated the interview as a piece of "showbiz puff" rather than a major news story.
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The Princes spoke in a BBC interview to mark the tenth anniversary of Diana's death
In contrast, the American TV network NBC selected its veteran broadcaster Matt Lauer, 49, to interview the princes.
A BBC insider said: "Frankly it is ludicrous that a major interview with the sons of the Princess of Wales is not conducted by a proper journalist."
Miss Cotton started her career in children's TV and went on to present the now defunct Top of the Pops and ITV's lowbrow reality show Love Island.
She has also reported from the Oscars red carpet for Sky One, during which she called the actor Michael Sheen "Martin" and repeatedly informed the arriving stars that she was wearing "elasticated pants".
In the interview, which will be broadcast in full on June 29, Prince Harry said he treasured the private side of Princess Diana that he and William had seen.
He said: "That's the nicest thing about it, as you see her get slated for such and such, but the personal memories that we have of her are very much private and that's where hopefully it'll always be."
William spoke about his hopes that the concert would be a fitting tribute to her life, saying: "Hopefully it would be one of those things that she would absolutely adore because the whole point is, this is for her - it's not for any other reason."
Speaking about missing her, he added: "It's one of those things that is very sad but you learn to deal with it and there are plenty of other people out there who have got the same or worse problems than we've had."
He talked about her charity work, saying: "She did everything because she felt it was right and it was what she wanted to do.
"She didn't go by what she thought the best thing was to do or be told to do something, she would do it from the heart and fully immerse herself into it and she cared, she cared massively.
"We were left in no doubt at all that we were the most important thing in her life and then after that there was everyone else, there were all her charities and everything like that and to me that's a really good philosophy, she just loved caring for people and she loved helping."
He also described how music was the Princess's "big release" and how he and Harry used to catch her dancing around in her room when they were younger.
