Princes William and Harry celebrated the life of their mother, the controversial Princess Diana, with a star-studded concert at the Wembley Stadium, joined by about 70,000 fans. Elton John opened the show with "Your Song," and then the two heirs to the throne took the stage.

"This evening is about all that my mother loved in life: her music, her charity and her family and friends," William said.

"Imagine if the princess were still with us. It is her 46th birthday party. If she were sitting up in the box with William and Harry, what would we be doing?" said Geoffrey Matthews, a senior member of the Clarence House staff, who oversaw the concert.

"We know that if our mother was here today ... she'd be the first up out of her seat and dancing," the princes wrote in the introduction to the programme. "Please join us in wishing our beloved mother a very happy birthday."

Only last month, a new Diana-related row emerged between the royal family and the media. Channel 4 broadcasted a documentary titled Diana: The Witness In The Tunnel, incorporating graphic photos of her dying minutes.

"If it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation so want it?" the British princes' private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, asked in a letter to Channel 4. "They will cause the princes acute distress if they are shown to a public audience, not just for themselves, but also on their mother's behalf, in the sense of intruding upon the privacy and dignity of her last minutes."

On 31 August 1997 Diana was involved in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, along with Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul. Their Mercedes-Benz S280 sedan crashed on the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction could easily result in a head-on collision with the tunnel pillar.