Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty She may have been the "people's princess," but everyone knows the rolePrincess Dianatreasured most was being mom to her sons,Prince WilliamandPrince Harry. The late Princess of Wales wedPrince Charlesin a grand ceremony in 1981. The pair welcomed their first child, William Arthur Philip Louis, the following year on June 21, 1982. They then expanded their family with the addition of Henry Charles Albert David on Sept. 15, 1984, before Diana and Charles'tumultuous relationship ended in 1996. On Aug. 31, 1997, Princess Diana died following a high-speed car accident in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris. In the BBC documentaryDiana, 7 Daysreleased in 2017, Prince William recalled "just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy" upon learning about their mother's death. "You feel very, very confused," William said. "And you keep asking yourself, 'Why me?' All the time, 'Why? What have I done? Why? Why has this happened to us?'" In his memoir,Spare,Prince Harry revealed he found out about the news from his dad. "I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right," Harry recalled. "And I remember him not doing that." Charles told his younger son that Diana "didn't make it." "These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board," Prince Harry said. "He did say it that way, I know that much for sure.She didn't make it.And then everything seemed to come to a stop." The two princes,despite their estrangement, areunited in preserving her memory, coming together in 2021 to unveil a statue for her 60th birthday. "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," they said at the time. "She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. Behind the media glare, to us, two children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world,"Harry said in a speech on the 10th anniversary of Diana's death. As we mark the 28th anniversary of her death, see some of the most heartwarming photos of Princess Diana with her two sons. 01 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty At just 10 months old,Williamhad the full attention of his adoring mother (here, on a trip to New Zealand in 1983). Of learning that her firstborn was to be a boy, Diana told the BBC in a 1995 interview that it was an "enormous relief." 02 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Diana helped her matching towheaded sons William, 4, andHarry, nearly 2, navigate a safe landing at the Aberdeen Airport, where the family headed for a summer vacation in 1986. "It would have been a little tricky if it had been two girls," Diana told the BBC. "William's future being as it is, and Harry like a form of a back-up in that aspect." 03 of 15 At the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1988, which marksQueen Elizabeth's official birthday (June 11), William, 5, smiled at the crowd while 3-year-old Harry stuck out his tongue – to mom Diana's chagrin – at the fans surrounding Buckingham Palace. 04 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Princess Diana was all smiles as she watched Prince William and Prince Harry take turns tickling the ivories. 05 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Joining big brother Wills, 7, an excited Harry, almost 5, was dropped off on his first day at pre-prep school Wetherby by Diana on Sept. 11, 1989. In a classic Diana move, she broke with the traditional, royal approach to child-rearing – dispensing with governesses and arranging her official schedule around that of her boys. 06 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Things got silly and sandy for Diana as she got in on the fun with Wills, 7, and Harry, 5, and her nephews during a 1990 New Year's getaway with her mother, Frances Shand-Kydd, on Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson's private hideaway in the British Virgin Islands. 07 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty During the Waleses' trip to Canada in October 1991, Diana made time between touring an AIDS hospice and a women's shelter to join William, 9, and Harry, 7, on a visit to Niagara Falls, where the trio donned rain slickers for a wet and wild voyage on the Maid of the Mist. 08 of 15 Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Always affectionate, Princess Diana was captured running to give her sons a big hug on the deck of the yacht Britannia as they joined her and Prince Charles on an extended tour of Canada in 1991. 09 of 15 Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty With nanny Olga Powell and mom Diana, the young princes enjoyed an open-sleigh ride in Lech, Austria, on March 30, 1993. 10 of 15 Martin Keene - PA Images/PA Images via Getty In March of the following year, during their pre-Easter break, William, 11, and Harry, 9, returned to the slopes in Lech, Austria, with Mom for a week-long ski trip that had become an annual family tradition. 11 of 15 Princess Diana Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Princess Diana beamed as the family marked Prince William's first day at Eton College on Sept. 6, 1995. 12 of 15 Anwar Hussein/WireImage Later, the doting mom was pictured giving 13-year-old William pointers as he signed the traditional entrance book at Eton College. The school was another break with royal tradition: The young prince enrolled at the venerable institution instead of the private boarding school Gordonstoun, an alma mater of his fatherPrince Charlesand grandfatherPrince Philip. 13 of 15 Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Always making sure her boys balanced their royal duties with play, Diana had pre-teens Harry and William bracing themselves for a thrilling – and wet! – day at Britain's most popular amusement park, Thorpe Park, in 1993. 14 of 15 Antony Jones/Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images Princess Diana looked effortlessly chic as she color coordinated with her boys for the VJ Day 50th Anniversary Celebrations in 1995. 15 of 15 TAR MAX/IPx/AP Images A year after her divorce (and a month-and-a-half before her sudden death), a carefree Diana spent a few idyllic days in July 1997 vacationing with Harry, 12, and William, 15 (not pictured), in Saint-Tropez – at the invitation of her new love interest Dodi Fayed's father. 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