What Prince William, Harry Wanted To Achieve With Princess Diana Statue: Report

Prince William and Prince Harry wanted Princess Diana's statue to show her legacy, according to a journalist.

Last week, the Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex unveiled a statue they had commissioned in honor of their late mother at London's Kensington Palace on what would have been her 60th birthday. The statue featured Princess Diana standing with a young girl and boy on either side of her, while another little boy appears from behind her.

People magazine chief foreign correspondent Simon Perry, who saw the sculpture up close, wrote in a new piece that he could see what the brothers had wanted to achieve with the design of the statue, which was the work of British sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley.

"The princes wanted people to think about the woman they knew as a mother — but also as someone who had a special touch with children, and did so much for them," Perry wrote for People. "And that is clearly the legacy that they had in mind when helping to create the memorial."

Perry went on to write that the statue brought to mind Princess Diana's past work as a kindergarten assistant before she married Prince Charles. But he said he believes Prince William and Prince Harry wanted to remind people of the late Princess of Wales' work with children-focused charities during her time as a working royal.

Perry also suggested that the addition of the third child in the background reflected "some of the mischievousness that her boys adored and that appealed to the countless children she met."

"Plenty of people have said it doesn't 'look' like the princess. Getting her exactly right would be a nearly impossible act to pull off. But it had to represent her, without being an avant garde interpretation. In hundreds of years time, people will have to look at her and say, 'Yes, that's Diana, Princess of Wales,'" he wrote, adding, "The image I saw cast in bronze was most definitely of the woman I remember."

Perry said he had seen Princess Diana several times but got to be in the same room as her on two occasions. He remembered Princess Diana as a "happy" individual, who was "athletically toned" and confident — an image he believes Prince Harry and Prince William wanted to capture with the statue.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Prince William put on a united front during the Thursday event, which was not attended by other senior royals.

"The royals wanted to keep it very personal and not have many family members in attendance since that would be a takeaway from the special moment," an unnamed source told Us Weekly. "This wasn’t a last-minute decision; it was decided on a few weeks ago that the other royals wouldn’t be attending. Meghan [Markle] just had her baby, [Duchess] Kate watched from afar with the kids, and same with the Queen. Charles had said he didn’t want to be a distraction."

Royal biographer Katie Nicholl, author of "Harry: Life, Loss and Love," also noted in a video acquired by Entertainment Tonight that the brothers looked comfortable in each other's company.

However, she said she believes Prince Philip’s funeral and Princess Diana’s statue unveiling won’t be enough for Prince William and Prince Harry to end their rift because the former may still be angry with his younger brother for some of the things he's said about their family in interviews.

The Duke of Sussex flew back to California a day after the event. His visit to the U.K. was expected to be brief because he and Meghan Markle had just welcomed their second child, daughter Lili.