Prince Harry in talks to make Diana documentary for anniversary

Prince Harry crossed into the Lancaster Hotel in London on Monday evening and kept moving as the questions came. Reporters asked about his family. He gave no answers. It was his third public appearance since returning to the United Kingdom, and he had come for the WellChild Awards, the charity he has served as patron since 2007. Meghan Markle, who had attended with him in 2018 and 2019, was not there.

On stage he praised the children living with complex medical needs and the families who care for them. There was not a dry eye in the house, he said. To the parents he added that most people would never truly know the emotional ups and downs of their day, yet he hoped they took strength from nights like this, and that the room recognised the commitment of their care.

Award recipient Will Messer handed him a toy figurine of himself. Harry complimented Margot Jones-Billington on her shoes, mentioning that his daughter Lilibet loves the colour pink, and received a hug from her sister.

August 2027 will mark thirty years since Diana, Princess of Wales, died in Paris at the age of thirty-six. A source close to Harry described the talks already under way. "The Duke has discussed a number of possible projects to mark the 30th anniversary of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales's passing. Nothing has been finalised or confirmed, and he is still considering the most meaningful way to honour her legacy during this important anniversary year."

A documentary sits among those options. Any film that advanced would be produced through Archewell Productions under the multi-year first-look deal Harry and Meghan Markle hold with Netflix. Reports have floated Meghan helping to shape the narrative or to narrate the finished work.

No title has been announced. No production schedule has been set. The conversations range across more than one possible form of tribute, and the choice itself remains open. Only the anniversary date is fixed.

Earl Spencer, sixty-two, published Swan Song: Diana, My Sister on 22 September 2026. The book is a personal history of his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, written nearly three decades after her death.

"I was an eyewitness to history, and where the truth is difficult, I haven't shied away from it," he said. "I did not consult any members of my family about the content of the book, as I did not want to implicate them in my authorial decisions, or to be constrained by them. I hope readers will see the book for what it is: an honest account."

Neither Prince William nor Prince Harry received advance details of the memoir. Spencer did not consult his sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, about its content either. The book contains a series of claims about King Charles III from the period after Diana's death. Spencer attributes one line to him after the Paris crash.

"Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."

The Palace disputed the recollection. Spencer called the response gaslighting.

He turned down the endless requests to appear as a talking head. Documentary producers kept asking; he kept refusing. He did not want his sister’s story shaped by a flawed agenda set by someone he would never meet.

“Writing around Diana's life has been heavily mythologised, and much of what's been written about her has been notable for its inaccuracy.”

The calendar pressed harder than the cameras. “The 30th anniversary of her death is approaching; I am in my sixties now and I feel the passage of time more sharply than I once did. I don't want to reach the end of my own life having left my sister's story to be told by people who never knew her.”

“It is a personal account of my sister, Diana. It is not only her story, it is my story; a book which will stand the test of time.”

“As a historian, I believe Diana's story deserves to be told honestly, however uncomfortable for others, and because silence has its own cost.”

His nephews once told that story side by side.

In 2017 they made the BBC film Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy together, for the twentieth anniversary. Diana had died on 31 August 1997 in a Paris car crash, aged thirty-six, with Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul. Harry was twelve. William was fifteen.

In July 2021 the brothers stood again with Earl Spencer, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes. They unveiled a statue of their mother in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace on what would have been her sixtieth birthday. That shared work has not been repeated. The brothers are now estranged.

Richard Kay has noted William’s frustration that Harry tries to claim the Diana legacy, and recalled that Harry spent time with Diana’s family at Althorp during a July visit. Sean O’Grady has framed a Sussex documentary about her as the King’s worst nightmare and written of a rival court operating on British soil.

Harry and Meghan Markle moved back to the United Kingdom in August 2026 after six years in Montecito, California. They live in the Cotswolds with Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five. They have not resumed the public duties of working members of the royal family.

Kensington Palace has not said how Prince William will mark 2027. No commemorative plan has been announced in his name. Harry’s course stays open in the same measure. Possible projects remain under discussion. A documentary would still travel through Archewell Productions and the first-look deal with Netflix, yet talks and outreach are all that exist on the record. Nothing is locked.

The thirtieth anniversary arrives in August 2027.