Lucy Carne: Please let Diana and her cult of sentimentality and victimhood finally rest in peace

The uncomfortable truth is that Diana was inspirational and also flawed. One event to commemorate her memory is not a cure-all for the bitter damage inflicted on the royal family, writes Lucy Carne.

It was the catwalk of sexagenarians in summer dresses modelling what “Diana would look like now” that did me in.

The clip from a British morning show currently doing the rounds on social media encapsulates all that is baffling about the hysterical cult of Diana revived.

As her two embattled sons with their matching bald spots removed the green cloth at her statue ceremony, they revealed not just a bronze (and somewhat masculine) replica of their beloved and beautiful mother.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex after they unveiled a statue of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales on what would have been her 60th birthday. Picture: Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Prince William reportedly spent just 20 minutes together with guests after the ceremony before Harry left. Picture: Dominic Lipinski / POOL / AFP

The unveiling of the statue to mark Diana’s 60th birthday on Thursday also unleashed global waves of hyper-romanticised sentimentality.

The speculations were rife: who would she date, what sort of stylish grandmother would she be, what would she say, think, do, wear today?

So many gushing assumptions. Diana would be ‘so proud’ of Prince William, that she would not have allowed Harry’s marriage or that she would have adored her youngest’s son’s American wife.

When it comes to Diana, it has become almost compulsory to revert to unrestrained emotionalism, even almost 25 years after her death.

This is not just sadness for two boys who lost their mum, it is a selfish sense of personal mortality fuelled by contempt at the royal family for their supposed role in her demise.

Diana may be dead but her victimhood is still very much alive today.

The recent Lord Dyson report found the BBC journalist Martin Bashir had allegedly deceived Diana into giving her famous Panorama interview.

Martin Bashir interviews Princess Diana in Kensington Palace for the television program Panorama. Picture: Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

What was once an international sensation, remembered for her glorious moment of articulate assertiveness (“there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”), suddenly became reframed.

The interview was blamed for the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, despite the royal couple having been separated for three years. A seething Prince William even demanded the footage never be aired again.

Diana went from a confident single mother sharing her truth to a shy and unstable woman coerced into saying things she didn’t really mean.

Her sons are clearly still grieving their mother, who was snatched from them when they were just 15 and 12.

Diana with Dodi Al Fayed. Picture: Supplied

Diana was inspirational and flawed. Picture: AFP

These sad brothers, like so many other children every day, lost their mother in tragic circumstances.

“Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy,” the Princes said in a statement.

Yes, Diana was a beautiful, kind and caring woman who brought modernity and hands-on humanity to the House of Windsor.

Embracing AIDS patients, crouching to talk to orphans, walking through minefields – she was the “people’s princess”, as Tony Blair immortalised her.

What we hear less about, however, is Prince Charles’ huge contribution to charity and devotion as a father, who walked Harry’s wife down the aisle and financed his son’s whims of independence.

The uncomfortable truth is that Diana was also flawed.

She was insecure, paranoid, at times immature, gallivanted the globe with boyfriends while her sons were in boarding school, courted the limelight and manipulated the press to paint her as a constant victim.

But this is overlooked as the mourning masses perpetuate the tragic tale of a fragile princess driven to her death by the evil firm.

The reality is she died because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in a speeding car with a drunk behind the wheel.

Of course any mother would wish for harmony between her children, but to assume that Prince William must reconcile with Prince Harry to honour Diana’s memory is outrageous and dangerous.

The 20 minutes Harry spent after the statue event before jumping into a black van to Heathrow to return to California without even seeing his father speaks volumes of the irretrievably broken relationship.

Overemphasising one event for Diana as a cure-all for the damage Harry has inflicted on the royal family only perpetuates the victimhood Diana was so fond of — and which Harry and his wife have picked up.

William’s “we are very much not a racist family” and the Queen’s “recollections may vary” are clear statements that this time the royal family will not allow themselves to be painted as villains.

Now the statue has been revealed, it is time to let the cult of Diana’s victimhood finally be allowed to rest. And for her sons to move on – with or without each other.