Princess Diana Would Have Supported Harry's Decision to Step Back from Royal Life, Friend Says

Princess Diana's former designer shared his thoughts on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal exit and said she would have been supportive of the couple's decision.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are weeks into their new lives in Canada. The couple has settled into a million-dollar mansion with their son. Harry was even pictured making a sandwich run while out doing errands.

In his final speech before departing England, Harry said the move had been months in the making. After his personal experience of living in the public eye, his main motivation was to protect his family.

Fashion designer Paul Costelloe worked with Princess Diana for 15 years and has many fond memories of their time together.

So much so that he considered her a friend during their various run-ins during the 1980s and 1990s. Sharing how he thought she would handle Harry's departure from the royal family, he told PEOPLE that "she wouldn't be upset."

He dressed Diana in everything from her day-to-day school runs with her children to her royal tours in Australia and India. Having spent so much time around her family, he was adamant that she would be supportive, Costelloe explained:

"She would say 'do what you need to do,' definitely, she was not a royalist at all, she was a person of the people and she put her children first before anything else."

Costelloe revealed that he enjoyed working with Diana because "she was lovely to dress." More than her beauty, he said he enjoyed her personality and said she was an honest, humorous, and sincere person. Most of all she was family orientated, he recalled:

"I remember meeting William and Harry — they were so cute. Harry was the little troublemaker and William was always well behaved."

Diana's influence over Harry's decision to leave was echoed in his speech at an event organized for his charity Sentebale in January.

He expressed the same sentiments she did when she made her farewell speech about leaving the royal family 20 years ago. Harry shared his mother's same feelings when spoke about the struggle of dealing with the media and the goal to create a life focusing on family and protecting them.

Another companion of Diana's; her former butler Paul Burrell told

that Harry had been unhappy for years, and he doesn't think that he will miss his royal life.

Paul said Harry has similar ambitions like Diana to pursue a normal life and focus on humanitarian work, something which was difficult to navigate as a member of the monarchy