Princess Diana didn’t know it at the time—or maybe, innately, she did—but 1992 would be her final Trooping the Colour.

The annual parade is held every year in June to honor the current monarch’s birthday, no matter when the reigning king or queen was actually born (for context, King Charles’s birthday is in November; his mother Queen Elizabeth’s was in April). Because of London’s favorable weather in early summer, it’s basically a non-negotiable staple in the royal diary—so much so that, even amid her cancer treatment last year, Kate Middleton made Trooping the Colour her first public appearance for the entirety of 2024 on June 15.

Diana—who held Kate's current title, Princess of Wales, while she was married to the former Prince Charles—never missed a Trooping the Colour from 1981, the year the couple wed, until 1992. (She even attended, heavily pregnant, in June 1982; she’d deliver her firstborn, Prince William, a couple of weeks later on June 21.) 

The year 1992 marked Diana’s last Trooping the Colour. Charles and Diana separated shortly thereafter before eventually finalizing their divorce in 1996. After their split, which was oftentimes contentious, not the least of which because of the other woman involved, Camilla Parker Bowles (who is now Queen Camilla), Diana never attended another Trooping the Colour again. Just over a year after Charles and Diana were declared officially divorced on August 28, 1996, Diana died at just 36 years old in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.

Like her late mother-in-law before her, Kate has never missed a Trooping the Colour in her 14 years since marrying into the royal family in 2011. This year will mark Kate’s 13th Trooping the Colour, as there was no parade in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic; Kate will also officially surpass Diana’s number of appearances at the 2025 event (although no one is keeping score).

Princess Kate frequently channels Diana's style, as seen last month when she christened the HMS Glasgow in Scotland on May 22, wearing a nautical-inspired outfit that mirrored one Diana had worn before her. Kate also wore a pair of Princess Diana’s sapphire and diamond drop earrings for the occasion. (Diana wore the same pair of earrings on a number of notable outings, including her one and only Met Gala in 1996, the year before her death.)

One of her most memorable Diana-inspired looks was at Trooping the Colour in 2022. Although Queen Elizabeth was center stage, Kate honored her late mother-in-law through her choice of outfit. In addition to wearing a pair of Diana’s earrings, which match her sapphire and diamond engagement ring (also inherited from Diana), Kate’s Alexander McQueen coatdress and Philip Treacy hat mirrored the look worn by Diana at her final Trooping the Colour in 1992, 30 years prior. Ever a fan of the re-wear, the former Duchess of Cambridge (her official title in 2022) previously wore the same Alexander McQueen dress to the G7 Summit in June 2021, one year prior.

Of channeling Diana through fashion, Bethan Holt, fashion news and features director at The Telegraph, told People, “I think we have seen lots of examples where the reference is very intentional, and I think that Kate uses fashion to pay tribute to Diana in a very positive way.”

There are countless examples of this throughout her royal life, but as far as Trooping the Colour fashion goes, Kate’s 2017 bubblegum pink Alexander McQueen dress and Jane Taylor hat distinctly resemble a look Diana wore on April 7, 1983, to visit Freemantle Hospital in Australia. (The only difference? Diana’s pink dress had white polka dots.)

Contrary to what the final season of Netflix’s The Crown would have you believe, Kate has rarely spoken about the mother-in-law she never knew. While visiting Wales in April 2023, the current Princess of Wales said of the former Princess of Wales and their shared engagement ring, “It’s the same ring and it’s exactly the same size as when I tried it on. It’s very special. What an honor to be able to wear it.”

“I never, sadly, got to meet her,” Kate continued, adding that, when it came to Diana as a grandmother, “She’d be brilliant. We miss her every day.” William said in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy that he “constantly” talks to his and Kate’s children about "Granny Diana” at bedtime.

When Kate was named Princess of Wales in September 2022 following the death of Queen Elizabeth, a palace spokesperson said that she “appreciates the history associated with this role” but would “understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path.” In royal biographer Robert Jobson’s 2024 book Catherine: The Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen, the author wrote that Kate considered “refusing” the royal title so synonymous with Diana because “She knew she’d inevitably be compared with Diana, whose untimely death had provoked such a tsunami of anger and grief. And she was right.”

Yet when the time came, Kate "accepted her promotion with good grace, out of respect for her husband and the King." William himself said in his 2010 engagement interview that there was no pressure for Kate to be the “next Diana.”

“No one is trying to fill my mother’s shoes,” William explained. “It’s about carving your own future and your own destiny, and Kate will do a very good job at that.” Kate, for her part, said in that same interview, “I would have loved to have met her, and she’s obviously...she’s an inspirational woman to look up to.”

However, that didn't stop Princess Kate from forging her own path. “Diana and Catherine are completely different personalities,” royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said to Reader’s Digest, adding that “Catherine has had over a decade to successfully make her own identity as a hardworking royal. She is beloved because she stayed true to herself.” Yet, though they are two different people, Fitzwilliams conceded that “Catherine is the nearest contemporary equivalent to Diana, in terms of her popularity with both the media and the general public.”

When it comes to fashion, Holt told People, “What’s really key about these times when Kate references Diana, it’s not like a costume. She brings it right up to date, so she makes it look relevant for now. She’s not doing an ‘80s power shoulder or a puffball skirt—she’s making it look sleeker and more contemporary. She makes it her own without looking like she’s playing ‘dress up as Diana.’”

Channeling Diana through fashion is also a decision that William and Kate likely make together, Holt explained: “I think that William and Kate between them might have decided that, actually, on some occasions it’s a really nice thing for Kate to reference the fact that Diana is still a fashion muse today and to do that through her own clothes.”

Holt said that Kate paying homage sartorially to Diana in recent years—like at 2022’s Trooping the Colour—is a sign of the royal's growing confidence. “I think for a long time she [Kate] was a little bit reluctant with her style, and the reasoning behind that was meant to be that Diana was this huge global style icon and those were really big shoes for Catherine to fill,” Holt told People. “For a few years at the beginning of her marriage, she was very tentative, and we didn’t see her doing it very much. As she’s become more confident in her own style, knowing what works for her, she’s then been able to incorporate those Diana moments into her own wardrobe, and she’s done it in a way that really makes sense.”

In addition to Alexander McQueen, which Kate has worn to eight of her 12 Trooping the Colour appearances, Kate has also turned to tried-and-true brands like Jenny Packham and Catherine Walker (a longtime favorite of Diana’s) for the annual occasion. Her other two looks were by Erdem in 2012 and Andrew Gn in 2023, and it remains to be seen who she will add to her roster for this year’s ensemble.