United kingdom Daily news: Prince William interview with Katie Couric: Princess Diana 'would have loved Kate Middleton'

Prince William interview with Katie Couric: Princess Diana 'would have loved Kate Middleton'

William reveals in an interview with Katie Couric that he mentally prepared for the day
Harry tells Couric that Diana would have loved Kate
Prince William recalls the day the Queen told him to tear up the original guest list and start with his friends

By Deborah Arthurs and Victoria Wellman

PUBLISHED: 06:56 EST, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:32 EST, 30 May 2012

Prince William has revealed how he'd wished that his mother Princess Diana had been able to see his wedding day.

The prince said it was the 'one time' since she died that he'd really missed his mother and he'd felt 'sad' knowing she wouldn't be there.

William opened up during an interview at Clarence House, where he lives with Kate, for the U.S. show The Jubilee Queen with Katie Couric, set to be screened onÂ ABC at 9pm today. Difficult: 'It's the one time since she's died where I've thought to myself it would be fantastic if she was here, and just how sad really for her, more than anything, not being able to see it,' William said of his wedding day

'I sort of prepared myself beforehand so that I was sort of mentally prepared,' he said. 'I didnâ€™t want any wobbly lips or anything going on,' Prince William told Couric in the interview ahead of the celebrations in honour of the Queen's 60-year reign.

'It was the one time since she's died where I've thought to myself it would be fantastic if she was here. And just how sad really, for her more than anything, not being able to see it.

'I think she would have loved the day and I think, hopefully, sheâ€™d be very proud of us both for the day.Â Iâ€™m just very sad that sheâ€™s never going to get a chance to meet Kate.'

For Harry too it was a poignant moment, as he felt his mother's absence acutely, knowing espe cially that 'she would have loved Kate.'

'I think she had the best seat in the house probably,' Harry said. 'She would have loved to have been there.'

Harry, who acted as his brother's best man, also confessed he was 'massively nervous' on his brother's wedding day.

'Everybody was nervous,' he said. 'The whole thing was a bit of a blur to be honest because there was God knows how many millions or billions of eyes focused on us. Luckily, mainly those two.'

South of the border: Prince Harry was in Brazil as a part of the Diamond Jubilee tour when he met with Couric

The two billion pairs of eyes didn't go unnoticed by William either. Recalling his wedding day he said: 'Honestly it was one of those days where you feel very elated. Also completely terrified, I have to be honest. The prospect of two billion people watching was quite daunting.'

A new biography of the prince has claimed that the future king was so scarred by his parent's failed marriage that he worried whether he could be faithful to one woman.

According to royal biographer Penny Junor, the author of 'Prince William: The Man Who Will Be Ki ng', Prince Charles and Princess Diana's highly publicised affairs contributed to Prince William's delayed marriage proposal to now-wife Kate Middleton.

'The problem was William: he had very real worries about whether it was possible to love just one woman. After his hurricane childhood, he was understandably cautious about committing to a relationship,' Junor writes in the book.

Katie Couric, who later confessed she had been 'trepidatious' to bring up the subject of Diana because it was 'so personal and private', also talked to the princes about their relationship with the Queen.

The stories that the heirs to the throne shared shows that they have a very close bond with her, one that is much more normal than expected.

'I still think she's just my grandmother, really,' Prince William told the American interviewer when asked if he remembers a specific moment when he realised that his grandmother was not like everyone else's.

But con tinued, admitting: ''When I was younger and my parents used to always slap my hand if I was picking my nose or if I was running around screaming I was told to shut up. And I sort of understood that when I was around her I needed to be a little but more low key and little bit more polite.'

Emotional scarring: A new biography about the prince claims that he was so affected by his parents' highly publicised affairs he doubted he could be faithful to one woman

Looking back at the incredible challenge facing their grandmother who took the throne at the age of 25 back in what Prince William referred to as a 'man's world', both the princes were equally as admiring.

Talking to Couric in Brazil, the younger of the two said he couldn't imagine, even at 27, taking on the responsibility that the Queen did in 1953.

'This tour itself has been a brief insight as to what she had to deal wit h at a very young age,' Harry said. 'What she's achieved and what she's done and at the age of 25, confronted with the world's media. You can see it in her face now. You can see it in the way that she parades herself is just so immaculate.'

When it comes to family though, he said his grandmother is 'really very very normal. Very relaxed. She obviously takes a huge interest in what we all do, that's her children as well as her grandchildren.Â

'She wants to know which charities we're supporting, how life is going in our jobs and such. So you know, she has a vested interested in what we do.'

Poignant: Princes Harry and William, pictured with their mother in 1993, said it was 'difficult' not to have their mother with them on the day

And it seems her interests go beyond what her own twenty-something grandsons are up to.

Joking about the Queen's Facebook page, he lamented that she hadn't 'friended' him yet and asked Couric whether she had received any friend requests from his grandmother herself.

'She's managed to get the family to move with the times and I think that's incredibly important. You can't get stuck in an old age situation when everything else around you is changing so you have to go with it,' he s aid approvingly.

From William's description of his first meeting to discuss the royal wedding, it would appear however, that when it comes to business versus family, Britain's monarch does not waste time in prioritising.

'I was given a list in the first meeting, of 777 names, and not one of them on there I knew,' he recalled. 'And I wasn't too happy about it so I rang her for a bit of moral support, and a bit of back up, and she said "don't be so ridiculous. Get rid of the list and start from your friends."'

The interviews came as a part of a special report on the Royal Family which will air in full on ABC tonight at 9pm EST.