I stand before you today the representative of a family
           in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in
           shock. We are all united not only in our desire to pay our
           respects to Diana but rather in our need to do so.

           For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions
           of people taking part in this service all over the world via
           television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they
           too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday
           morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can
           ever hope to offer her today.

           Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of
           beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless
           humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights
           of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended
           nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless
           and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title
           to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.

           Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened
           our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will
           all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and
           yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all.
           Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are
           now without and we want you to know that life without you is
           very, very difficult.

           We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only
           the strength of the message you gave us through your years of
           giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.

           There is a temptation to rush to canonise your memory, there is
           no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of
           unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint. Indeed to
           sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of
           your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a
           laugh that bent you double.

           Your joy for life transmitted where ever you took your smile and
           the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy
           which you could barely contain.

           But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you
           used wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful
           attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that
           had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for
           what was really important in all our lives.

           Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in
           greater ignorance at the anguish of Aids and HIV sufferers, the
           plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random
           destruction of landmines. Diana explained to me once that it was
           her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for
           her to connect with her constituency of the rejected.

           And her we come to another truth about her. For all the status,
           the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very
           insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do
           good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings
           of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a
           symptom. The world sensed this part of her character and
           cherished her for her vulnerability whilst admiring her for her
           honesty.

           The last time I saw Diana was on July 1, her birthday in London,
           when typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special
           day with friends but was guest of honour at a special charity
           fundraising evening. She sparkled of course, but I would rather
           cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to
           visit me and my children in our home in South Africa. I am proud
           of the fact that, apart from when she was on display meeting
           President Mandela, we managed to contrive to stop the
           ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture of her -
           that meant a lot to her.

           These were days I will always treasure. It was as if we had been
           transported back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous
           amount of time together - the two youngest in the family.
           Fundamentally she had not changed at all from the big sister who
           mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured
           those long train journeys between our parents' homes with me at
           weekends.

           It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that
           despite the most bizarre-like life imaginable after her
           childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.

           There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in
           her life at this time. She talked endlessly of getting away from
           England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at
           the hands of the newspapers. I don't think she ever understood
           why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media,
           why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to
           bring her down. It is baffling.

           My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is
           threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum.
           It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana,
           perhaps the greatest was this - a girl given the name of the
           ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted
           person of the modern age.

           She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her
           beloved boys, William and Harry, from a similar fate and I do
           this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer
           the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.

           And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge
           that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the
           imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional
           young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty
           and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.

           We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been
           born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal
           role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience
           as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them
           spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you
           would have expected nothing less from us.

           William and Harry, we all care desperately for you today. We are
           all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was
           not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even
           imagine.

           I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has
           shown us at this dreadful time. For taking Diana at her most
           beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life.
           Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud
           to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the
           extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both
           internal and external, will never be extinguished from our
           minds.