Princess Diana’s tragic death is one of the most heartbreaking news stories of the century. The People’s Princess died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. A week later, she was honoured with a public funeral that remains one of the most watched events in history, as an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide viewed or listened to the service, while another three million crowded the streets of London to follow the procession.

While many celebrities attended, Diana’s funeral was originally intended to be a private affair.

Channel Four reported that Queen Elizabeth II had insisted Diana’s ceremony should be intimate, but Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed that Diana should be laid out at St. James’s Palace with a public funeral held at Westminster Abbey.

Reports claim that after an intervention from Mr Blair, the Queen eventually relented.

However, according to 2008 book “Tony’s Ten Years: Memoirs of the Blair Administration” by Sky’s political editor Adam Boulton, tensions between Downing Street, the Queen and Prince Philip arose once again over the funeral arrangements.

Mr Boulton recalled how an anguished Duke of Edinburgh, backed by the Queen, said “f*** off” to Government spin doctors when told about the plan for the young princes William and Harry to walk behind Diana’s coffin.

He wrote: “The events of that week in September 1997 were very sad, but as the spinners from Downing Street came to Buckingham Palace and started to kick around what roles Harry and William should play in the funeral, the Queen had relished the moment when Philip had bellowed over the speakerphone from Balmoral: ‘F*** off!’

“‘We are talking about two boys who have lost their mother’.

“Once the arrangements had been sorted out, Blair read the lesson very melodramatically that day in the Abbey.

“Blair had been helpful reading the public mood when Diana had died but he was also presumptuous.”

The call was reportedly witnessed by Anji Hunter, who worked for Mr Blair.

In 2017 Channel 5 documentary on Diana’s funeral, “7 Days”, Ms Hunter said how surprised she was to hear Prince Philip’s emotion.

She said: “I can remember – it sends a tingle up my back.

“We were all talking about how William and Harry should be involved and suddenly came Prince Philip’s voice.

“We hadn’t heard from him before, but he was really anguished.”

Prince William told the same documentary that walking behind his mother’s coffin was “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done”.

The Duke of Cambridge, who was 15 at the time, recalled using his fringe as a “safety blanket” during the “very long, lonely walk”.

William and Harry were joined by their father, the Prince of Wales, grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, and uncle, Earl Spencer, in the procession through London.

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