Sarah Ferguson pays tribute to Princess Diana on her birthday.
Ferguson took to Instagram to pay tribute to the late princess on what would have been her 63rd birthday. The former royal posted a photo of the two standing side by side, smiling on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Battle of Britain anniversary parade in September 1990.
“Happy birthday to my dear friend Diana. You were a pillar of light and love. What a legacy you have left behind!” she wrote in the caption. “I will always remember our laughter and the kind and gentle spirit I found in you. I am sure you are always watching over us. Rest in peace, friend.”
The two were very close during their time as members of the royal family, when Diana was married to Prince Charles and Ferguson to Prince Andrew. However, their friendship goes back much further, as the two met when Diana was 14 and Ferguson was 15.
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Sarah Ferguson wished the late Princess Diana a happy birthday in an Instagram post. (Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)
“Her mother and my mother went to school together and were best friends,” Ferguson said on her podcast “Tea Talk with the Duchess and Sarah” in June 2023. “And Diana was my fourth cousin. It's extraordinary that we were brought together.”
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The two joined the royal family just a few years apart. Princess Diana married the current King Charles in July 1981, and Ferguson married Prince Andrew just five years later in July 1986.
After marrying Prince Andrew, Ferguson became the Duchess of York and admitted on her podcast that she often turned to Diana to learn the tricks of the trade.
“I remember when I first became a princess with Duch [Diana’s nickname]”I watched her work in a room and I just copied her. I imitated her, how she did it, because it was amazing,” he explained. “She immediately came in with her heart. With all her heart, with all her energy, and she left everything outside the door.”
Ferguson and Diana eventually divorced their royal husbands. (Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)
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Both women would eventually divorce their royal husbands in 1996: Diana and Charles finalized their divorce that same August and Ferguson and Andrew finalized theirs in May.
Just one year later, Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris aged 36. An estimated 2.5 billion people watched as young Princes William and Harry walked behind their mother's coffin during her funeral, which was broadcast live on television around the world.
“There's nothing like it in the world,” William said of his mother's passing in the HBO documentary “Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy” in 2017. “There really isn't. It's like an earthquake just went through the house and your life and everything. Your mind is completely split. And it took me a while to come to terms with it.”
In March 2024, William spoke at the Diana Award ceremony at the Science Museum in London. The program's main goal is to help those working to create humanitarian and social change, according to its website.
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Prince William remembered his mother during his speech at the Diana Awards ceremony in March 2024. (Photo library by Tim Graham via Getty Images)
Speaking at the ceremony, Prince William spoke of the legacy his mother left to the public and to him personally.
“She taught me that we all have the potential to give back; that everyone in need deserves a helping hand in life,” she said. “That legacy is something both Catherine and I have tried to focus on through our work, as have the 50,000 young people who have received a Diana Award over the past 25 years.”
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