Princess Diana died in the early morning hours of Aug. 31, 1997, following a car accident in Paris

NEED TO KNOW

• Princess Diana is being remembered on the 29th anniversary of her death
• Diana died following a car accident in Paris in 1997
• Find out how her loved ones honored her

Princess Diana is being remembered by her loved ones on the 29th anniversary of her death.

The late Princess of Wales’ brother, Charles Spencer, paid tribute to her on Monday, Aug. 31 by sharing a flag being flown at half-staff over Diana’s childhood home at Althorp House in Northamptonshire.

“31 August. My least favourite day,” Spencer captioned the post.

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Spencer, 62, recently announced plans for another kind of tribute to his late sister. His upcoming book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, will aim to tell the story of the royal’s life from his unique perspective as a historian, best-selling author and her only brother. The book is due out on Sept. 22, starting the countdown to the 30th anniversary of Diana’s infamous death, following a car accident in Paris in the early morning hours of Aug. 31, 1997.

“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” Spencer said in a press release. “As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”

In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Prince Harry, now 41, wrote about his uncle’s support in the days following Diana’s death. Specifically, he recalled the vehement way Spencer protested the royal family’s plan to have him and Prince William, then just 12 and 15 years old, walk behind the horse-drawn carriage carrying her casket during the public funeral procession.

“It seemed a lot to ask of two young boys,” Harry recalled. “Several adults were aghast. Mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell. ‘You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin! It’s barbaric.’ “

An alternative plan was proposed: William would walk without his brother, alongside Spencer, King Charles and Prince Philip. “He was 15, after all,” Harry wrote. “ ‘Leave the younger one out of it.’ Spare the Spare.”

But the answer came back: “It must be both princes. To garner sympathy, presumably.”

“Uncle Charles was furious,” Harry wrote. “But I wasn’t. I didn’t want Willy to undergo an ordeal like that without me. Had the roles been reversed, he’d never have wanted me — indeed, allowed me — to go it alone.”

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Spencer has continued to support his sister’s sons following her death. In July, he welcomed Harry, Meghan Markle and their children to visit him at Althorp, the family estate where he and Diana grew up, and where she is buried.

Princess Diana is laid to rest on an island at the center of the ornamental lake known as the Round Oval within Althorp Park’s Pleasure Garden. Her brother has said it brings him comfort to know that Prince William and Prince Harry are able to visit their mother’s burial place privately.

“I think it’s very important for them to be there with her,” he previously told PEOPLE. “It is, luckily, very tranquil here, and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want. And that’s very lovely for me to know that.”

Tensions between the brothers have grown deeper since Harry and Meghan stepped back from their royal duties in 2020, with personal conflicts and rifts detailed in Spare, the couple’s bombshell 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, and their Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries.

Many believe that Diana’s absence has added another painful layer to the strained relationship between her sons.

“This is the sadness of it — they aren’t supporting each other like they should be,” a source close to the royal household told PEOPLE last August. “That’s what any mother would want — that they are there for each other.”

Diana’s biographer, Andrew Morton, spoke with PEOPLE for the same cover story, recounting, “Diana always used to say she had two boys for a reason — the younger would be there to support the older in the lonely task as future king… If she had been around, they would have worked things out in a different way.”

However, some members of royal inner circles believe that Harry and Meghan’s recent return to the U.K. presents the “best opportunity” for the brothers to attempt a reconciliation.

“It would never happen with him in America,” a source told PEOPLE earlier this month. “This gives them the opportunity to try and mend that bridge.”

Ultimately, the source added, King Charles “will want to see his sons together over time. This is the best opportunity we have seen in recent years.”

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