Naomi Campbell on Surprising Prince William with Princess Diana

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is looking back at the fond—and funny!—times she shared with the late Princess Diana.

On Campbell's new quarantine YouTube live chat series—called No Filter with Naomi—the legendary model reminisced with longtime pal Cindy Crawford about the time she and a slew of other iconic '90s fashion models helped surprise a young Prince William at Buckingham Palace for his birthday.

"I went with Claudia [Schiffer] and Christy [Turlington]. And he was coming home from school," said Campbell during the episode, per People. "And we had gotten there before he had gotten home from school and Princess Diana was like, 'Okay.' So we were just like, 'What do we do?' I mean, it was so sweet."

Prince William has also looked back on the surprise. In the documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, William said he was "completely and utterly awestruck"of the unconventional birthday present.

"That was a very funny memory that's lived with me forever," reminisced William during the documentary.

Crawford shared a separate time she met the prince, admitting to being nervous to meet him and his extremely famous mother.

"I think he was 16 when I met him," recalled Crawford. "I don't remember but look I was blushing. I was so intimidated meeting Princess Diana and being at Kensington Palace and just how completely down-to-earth she was because there's so much protocol I guess, and not being English, I don't understand some of it."

Crawford described Diana's demeanor as "going to a friend's house," and Campbell continued to gush over her fondness of the late princess.

"Loved Princess Diana, I just loved her. Humble, how down-to-earth and I’m just blessed to know her for the time that I did," commented Campbell.

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Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed. 

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