Princess Diana’s therapist says ‘all families fight’ in apparent plea for Harry and William to end feud
Julia Samuel, who is godmother to Prince George, says ‘there is no such thing as a perfect family’ in wake of tell-all memoir, Spare
A psychotherapist to Diana, Princess of Wales who was also one of her closest friends has said that all families fight and that there is no “one truth”.
Julia Samuel said “where we love most we hate most” and that there “there is no such thing as a perfect family”.
The comments, made in an Instagram video, appear to be a plea for the warring princes Harry and William to make peace following the scathing accusations made by the Duke of Sussex in his tell-all memoir, Spare.
In his book, published last week, the Duke of Sussex has accused his brother of shoving him to the floor in a physical altercation at Kensington Palace in 2019.
He has also made a series of damaging remarks about his father, King Charles, and the Queen Consort, who he accused of having “sacrificed” him “on her personal PR altar”.
'We all have a story of love and loss'
In a video shared with her 41,000 followers, Ms Samuel said: “We all have a story of love and loss and joy and pain and that within every family where we love most we hate most and make our deepest mistakes.
“And that there is no such thing as a perfect family, that all families operate on a spectrum of functional and dysfunctional depending on the internal and external pressures.”
Ms Samuel enjoyed a close relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales and the family after first meeting the princess in the late 1980s. The pair “clicked”, she said, and would go on lunch and gym dates together.
Her bond with the sons has endured, with the Prince of Wales asking her to be godmother to Prince George.
Bereavement has been a dominant theme in her work. She revealed that while she too has been involved in family disputes, she was fortunate they had “remained private, because none of us want those worst parts of ourselves to be exposed”.
The Duke of Sussex, who speaks in his book about the scarring effect on him of his mother’s death, said he felt “guilt” over not being able to cry in front of weeping mourners at Kensington Palace after she was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
“Often when there is a death in a family at the heart of fracture and heartbreak in families is the person they love and then this fight for the limited resources of love as they experience them at the time, and that can cause huge fights,” said Ms Samuel.
“None of us are immune from these fights.”