Prince William and Prince Harry make a surprise visit to the Diana tributes 20 years on

'It has been 20 years since our mother's death and the time is right to recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world'

Today marks twenty years since Princess Diana died tragically in a car crash in Paris.

To honour the anniversary, documentaries have been made in her memory, shops have been bringing back iconic fashion looks that she championed back in the day and a new memorial garden has been planted in her former home, filled with white roses and forget-me-nots.

The White Garden has been opened in honour of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace, celebrating her life with memories and classic looks – her white ‘Elvis’ Catherine Walker dress is even said to feature.

Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made an official visit to the memorial yesterday, a day ahead of the anniversary, where they paid their respects and spoke with representatives from charities that their mother was involved in.

Then, in a surprise move, the two princes went outside the Kensington Palace gates for an unannounced visit to read the public tributes and look at the flowers that people had left in their mother’s memory.

The emotional visit was a symbolic one, with the princes inspecting the tributes outside those very gates twenty years ago following Princess Diana’s death, when they were just 12 and 15-years-old.

After reading the tributes, Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to the hundreds of well-wishers waiting outside the gates, thanking them for being there and accepting flowers that they placed at the foot of their mother’s tributes.

In a documentary that was released earlier this month, the two princes spoke of their visit to the tributes in 1997. ‘I remember people’s hands were wet because of the tears they’d just wiped away from their face,’ recalled Prince Harry.

‘What was very peculiar but obviously incredibly touching was everybody crying,’ Prince William explained. ‘The wailing and the crying and people wanting to touch us – It was like nothing you can really describe.’

Prince William and Prince Harry will spend the anniversary of Diana’s death today in private.