'Funny, feisty and cheeky': Prince George's godmother gives rare insight into young royal's personality
Prince George’s godmother has revealed he is “funny and feisty” and that his late grandmother would have loved him.
Julia Samuel is psychotherapist and author, and was a close friend of Princess Diana through her life.
In the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, she explained that Diana had been godmother to her son, and it started something of a gift-giving tradition.
Asked if she was a good godmother, she said: “I am pretty good. She was godmother to my son, so I do to George what she did to us, which is give impossible toys that are really noisy, take a lot of making.
“So I come in, slightly tipped by the size of the present that William has to spend days putting together and then put all the machinery together and it makes awful tooting noises, and lights flashing, and that makes me laugh and it makes George laugh.”
Read more: Prince Harry tells young people 'my mother would have been fighting your corner'
Speaking about the prince, who turns seven later this month, she said: “He is amazing. He is funny and feisty and cheeky - she would have loved him so much. That’s heartbreaking for all of them.”
Diana died in 1997 at the age of 36. Wednesday would have been her 59th birthday.
Princes William and Harry don’t speak frequently about her, though Harry did mention her during a speech to recipients of the Diana Award on 1 July, which was set up in her name.
Harry told the activists his mother would have been “fighting their corner”.
William previously said that he speaks to his children about her to keep her memory alive.
Ms Samuel also spoke about her reaction to the outpouring of grief in the UK when Diana died, admitting at first, she was “outraged” that people were sad when they hadn’t met the royal.
Read more: Princess Diana feared no one would date her after divorce because she had 'baggage'
She said: “At the time, I sort of felt outraged that people were crying and wailing when they never met her, it just didn’t make sense.
“It took me a few weeks to realise that she was known by people, that they felt they did know and that she represented an aspect of themselves and her vulnerability they connected to and it was an amazing tribute.
“You never think one person can change the world and then you see someone like her by being as open and honest and vulnerable and authentic as she was, it changed the world and it changed Great Britain.
“She had a lasting effect on us. Now I feel immensely proud that everybody responded in the way they did, but in those first days it was much more visceral.”
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Ms Samuel also recalled her favourite memory of the late Princess of Wales, saying: “Her laugh, she had a fantastic laugh. It was a giggle, it was cheeky, and it lit up the room.
“She was a fantastic hugger, makes me sad.
“I was lucky to know her.”
In June, the Duchess of Cambridge revealed her oldest son had been “grumpy” because his younger brother Prince Louis was winning their sunflower growing competition.
And when speaking to a five-year-old who had to shield throughout lockdown, dad William said Paw Patrol has been one of George’s favourite television shows.
George, who turns seven on 22 July, is in Anmer Hall with his parents and siblings during lockdown. He attends Thomas’s, Battersea.
