London: Prince William and Harry will be making an emotional return to the home they grew up in with their mother Princess Diana.
The royal brothers will honour the tragic Princess’ legacy by using her Kensington Palace apartment for charity events and turn it into “a house of joy again”.
Work is said to have already begun on renovating the state rooms at Apartment 8 in readiness for their return in 2013.
A royal spokesman confirmed on Saturday that princes will use Diana’s former home for entertaining and holding receptions for their own charities.
“Neither of the princes wanted to move into their mother’s old apartment as a home but both see their futures at Kensington Palace,” the Daily Express quoted the spokesman as saying.
“Apartment 8 is partly being turned into offices and the state rooms will be used by both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry,” the spokesman said.
The princes have made no secret of their desire to keep their mother’s memory alive and their decision to make use of her former home shows their determination to continue her charitable legacy.
Diana’s apartments 8 and 9 were stripped bare and lay vacant for 10 years after her death in a Paris car crash in 1997.
They were then split back into two apartments, with 8 being used by four of Charles’s charities and 9 becoming home to the Chief of Defence Staff.
According to Aides, the princes’ move to the Palace is a “natural evolution” and a sign of their growing independence from Prince Charles’s office at Clarence House.
ANI