Image: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge in London, Britain March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville
LONDON (Reuters) – More than two decades after Britain’s Princess Diana was pictured forlornly alone at the Taj Mahal, her son Prince William and his wife Kate will visit the Indian landmark next month, evoking memories of his mother’s infamous 1992 trip.
The image of Diana sitting on a bench during a solitary sight-seeing trip to the Taj Mahal, a monument to love, made front page news worldwide and was widely interpreted as symbolizing the irreparable state of her marriage to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.
The couple divorced in 1996 after 15 years of marriage, a year before Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.
Charles has avoided the Taj Mahal on subsequent visits to India, but William, the Duke of Cambridge, and Kate “cannot wait to see it” during their official six-day tour to India and Bhutan starting on April 10, said a spokesman for William on Tuesday.
“The Duke of Cambridge is of course aware of the huge esteem his mother, the late Princess of Wales is held in India and he appreciates the iconic status of the images that exist of the princess at the Taj,” the spokesman said.
“He feels incredibly lucky to visit a place where his mother’s memory is kept alive by so many who travel there,” he added.
“Twenty-four years on from her visit to the Taj, the duke and the duchess are looking forward to seeing this beautiful place for themselves and creating some new memories as they say ‘thank you’ to the people of India at the conclusion of this tour.”
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
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