Princess Diana’s Friend Julia Samuel Recalls Meeting Her 10 Years Before Death

Princess Diana’s good friend, Julia Samuel, recently recounted what it was like meeting her 10 years before her death.

During an interview with The Times, Samuel said that she met Princess Diana in 1987, and they just clicked. “There was something about her and something about me that just worked,” she said.

After learning that Princess Diana in a car crash on Aug. 31, 1997, Samuel was filled with grief, and she admitted to still feeling it 20 years later. But her main focus as a counselor is to make sure that the people left behind by the princess are coping well.

“You can never take away the loss. It will always be a significant part of someone’s attitude to themselves in life. But you can make a huge impact on someone’s resilience. Being allowed to be a normal child as well as a sad child. Children learn most from the adults around them; that’s the biggest factor in their outcome, how their other parent is,” she explained.

But Samuel explained that she never counseled Princes William and Harry even though the latter said that he never spoke about his mom’s death for the past 28 years of his life. The counsel said that it’s a challenge to counsel someone who is very close to her.

But she and Prince William regularly meet since the latter is a royal patron for Child Bereavement U.K. “He came to an event last year. Sat with bereaved families. The thing people always say about him is that after a few minutes they forgot who he was. He’s a really good listener. They felt very touched by that. He has an amazing empathy, from his own experiences,” she said.

According to The Times, Samuel was also one of the people that helped Meghan Markle get to know Princess Diana even though they’ve not met in person. Prince Harry’s fiancée is being likened to the late princess because of their similar qualities.

During a previous interview, Samuel said that she is certain Princess Diana would have loved Markle.