Prince William’s Kind Gesture to an Elderly Woman at a 2016 Gala Was a “Classic Diana Move,” According to a Royal Author

Before her tragic death in 1997, Princess Diana had already made a lasting mark on her oldest son, Prince William.

William was just 15 when Diana died, but in her book, The Palace Papers, royal author Tina Brown shared a story that perfectly illustrates the way the Prince of Wales has been known to do things that are "classic Diana Spencer."

In her book, Brown writes of a sweet incident that occurred in 2016, when William and his wife, Kate Middleton, were attending a charity diner to support East Anglia Children's Hospices, where Kate serves as royal patron. At the event, Brown writes (per The Daily Mail), the guests were divided into small groups to meet with Will and Kate, who made time to chat with each person.

According to Brown, one guest, Euan Rellie, told her after the gala event, "I was struck by how absolutely perfect William and Kate are at making people feel at ease."

But the real treat for Rellie came after dinner, according to Brown, because that's when he was witness to what she described as "a winning off-stage William moment."

According to Brown, one of the "most generous donors" to the charity was an "elderly Park Avenue lady who had come over from the United States for the function and was a huge William fan." Unfortunately, the woman was reportedly "stuck in her room feeling unwell and could not come down to join the other guests."

One guest apparently casually mentioned this to William, telling him, "It's a shame our highest-roller donor is too ill to meet you"—and the royal's reaction was not what anyone was expecting.

Instead of simply passing on his well wishes for the woman, Brown explained that Will reportedly asked, "'Is there any chance somebody could make a pot of tea and put some biscuits on a plate?"

Just sending the tea and cookies up to the woman with a personal message would have been a kind gesture, but the prince went a step further and delivered them himself.

"He knocked on the door of the elderly lady and said: 'I know that you were too ill to come to dinner and I thought I'd bring you a cup of tea to say thank you very much for supporting the hospices,'" Brown explained in the book. "She was over the moon—hard not to be. It was a gesture that showed the imagination and empathy of his mother."

It's not surprising that the sweet moment stuck in guests' memories after the event, and Brown said that it caused Rellie, the guest who shared the story with her, to draw comparisons to Will's late mother, who was known for her kindness and generosity.

"It was a classic Diana Spencer move, just natural, gentle human kindness and had much more effect than a grand act," Rellie told Brown. "We all thought, how he learned something from his mum."