Prince George's godmother buys him 'impossible' noisy toys in running joke inspired by Diana
He once joked his late mother would have been an “absolute nightmare” as a granny, coming over at bathtime to cuddle the grandchildren, causing chaos and then leaving.
The Duke of Cambridge is still never far away from the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales, it has emerged, as her friends carry her mischievous streak into a new generation.
Julia Samuel, a close friend of the Princess, has told how she keeps her sense of humour alive for godson Prince George, making sure to deliver the nosiest, hard-to-assemble toys for his birthday for the Duke to deal with.
Mrs Samuel said it made Prince George laugh to receive “impossible” toys, which would take the Duke “days” to put together in a tradition started by the Princess decades ago.
Appearing on podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, she said of six-year-old Prince George: “He is amazing. He’s funny and feisty and cheeky and God she [Diana] would have loved him so much. That is heartbreaking for all of them.”
Asked if she was a “good” godmother, remembering his birthdays, she added she was “pretty good”, following in the footsteps of the Princess who was godmother to her own son.
“So I do to George what she did to us which is give impossible toys which are really noise, take a lot of making,” she joked.
“I come in slightly tipped by the size of the present that William then has to spend days putting together.
“And then put all the machinery together and it makes awful tooting noises and lights flashing and all of that.
“That makes me laugh and it makes George laugh.”
Mrs Samuel, the founding patron of Child Bereavement UK and a therapist who has written two books about grief and bereavement, also spoke of her memories of the Princess, saying she had come to view the public’s reaction to her death as an “amazing tribute”.
“You never think one person can change the world and then you see someone like her,” she said.
“By being as open and honest and vulnerable and authentic as she was, it changed the world and it certainly changed Great Britain. She had an absolutely lasting effect on us.”
Her latest book, This Too Shall Pass: Stories of Change, Crisis and Hopeful Beginnings, is out now.
