Diana Statue On Course For Kensington Palace Unveiling In 2021

Diana meeting US First Lady Hillary Clinton shortly before she died

A statue of Diana, the former Princess of Wales, is to be installed and unveiled in the grounds of London’s Kensington Palace next July to mark what would have been her 60th birthday.

It is understood the statue was commissioned by Diana’s two children, Prince William, currently the 2nd in line to the British throne after his father Prince Wales, and his younger sibling Harry.

Both were children, with William 15, and Harry just 12, when Diana was killed in a still controversial car crash in a Paris road tunnel in the summer of 1997 alongside her lover at the time.

The announcement, made by officials from Kensington Palace on Friday, said the unveiling had been delayed because of the UK’s continuing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kensington Palace is currently the official London home of William, Duke of Cambridge and was the place Diana was allowed to live following her 1996, divorce from William’s father, Prince Charles.

The statue was commissioned by William and Harry three years ago after a long process to choose a sculptor.

Ian Rank-Broadley, was the sculptor eventually selected by William after he produced images of William’s grandmother, the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as seen on current British coins.

Mr. Rank-Broadley is known in the UK as the sculptor behind the 2007, Armed Forces Memorial of fourteen military figures for which he received the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture a year later.

It is expected his statue of Diana will be unveiled on July 1st, 2021.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.