Prince William has spoken fondly of his late mother Princess Diana over the years, devoting much of his work – including his latest Homewards project – to her legacy.

Because his mother died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when the prince was just 15 years old, the future king was unable to introduce his current wife Princess Kate, whom he met years after Diana’s death at St Andrews University in 2001, to her.

However, it seems the prince still wanted his wife to have a connection with Diana, which was part of the reason he used her iconic sapphire ring to propose to Kate in 2010.

The proposal happened during a getaway with friends on October 20, 2010 in Kenya when the couple had some time alone. Prince William had said he carried the ring around for weeks before.

But the happy news wasn’t announced to the world until weeks later in November 2010, with the wedding taking place the following year in April 2011.

During an interview with ITV after news of their proposal was shared to the world, Prince William explained why he wanted to use his late mother’s ring to mark the couple’s engagement.

On the question of the family ring, Prince William said: “It’s my mother’s engagement ring. I thought it was pretty nice because she’s obviously not in it to share in the fun and excitement of it all, so this is my way of keeping her close to it all.

Kate then added: “It’s very, very special.”

Royal experts also commented on the prince’s decision to wear Diana’s ring and how important it was to William.

In the 2017 documentary ‘Kate Middleton: Working Class to Windsor’, royal writer Duncan Larcombe said: ‘Williams’ decision to give Kate his mother’s engagement ring – to outsiders we can look at it and say it wasn’t a great marriage in grand terms.

“I think for William it has a much more intimate meaning. Prince William will rarely ever talk publicly about his mother. He will very rarely do anything to draw comparisons to him and his mother and he really hates the idea of ​​Kate being seen as the new Princess Diana.

“But his decision to give her his mother’s engagement ring I thought was very significant because it showed that William wanted his mother on his big day to be there at the heart of what was going on.

“And actually, in a non-soppy way, I found it quite moving.”