Prince William paid a subtle tribute to his mother Princess Diana as he attended the first garden party after the Coronation earlier this week.
Following the coronation of the new monarch and Queen Camilla on Saturday, the Prince of Wales, 40, teamed up with his wife Princess Kate, 41, Duchess Sophie, 58 and Prince Edward, 59, for the event at Buckingham Palace.
They took the lead with the event which praises volunteers up and down the country. On Instagram, Kate and William said the event was to celebrate “people who do extraordinary things”.
But Prince William also gave a quiet nod to another significant person at the event.
For, in a rare public gesture, he opted to wear his mother’s favourite flowers, forget-me-nots, in the lapel of his jacket.
The flowers perfectly coordinated with Prince William’s baby blue tie, as well as his wife Kate’s Ellie Saab outfit.
Princess Diana died at the age of 36 when the car she was travelling in crashed in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997.
Forget-me-nots have been quietly referenced by the Prince of Wales and his brother Prince Harry at a number of events over the last few years.
When the the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, which was one of Princess Diana’s favourite spots for reflection, was given a makeover in 2021, 100 of Diana’s favourite Forget-me-nots were planted.
And Harry has frequently featured forget-me-nots at poignant moments in their lives as a nod to the royal, including on Meghan Markle’s first mother’s day post in 2019.
Forget-me-nots also featured in Meghan’s bouquet on the couple’s wedding day, as a tribute to Harry’s late mother, who loved the small purple flowers.
The Duke hand-picked several flowers from their private garden at Kensington Palace a day ahead of the wedding.
In 2020, the couple visited a preschool in Los Angeles on the 23rd anniversary of Diana’s death, where they planted the flowers.