AceShowbiz - George Michael, who has recorded a cover version of Stevie Wonder's "You & I" as a wedding gift to the prince and his bride-to-be Kate Middleton, has always been fond of the young royal, who is the son of his late friend Princess Diana.

He says, "I have quite an emotional attachment to what's going on here because I felt so badly for those boys when she (Diana) passed away and, having experienced losing my mother about three or four months before that, that day was very very strange for me."

"The idea of going through that when you're barely into your teens; words can't describe how much admiration I have for the way they've both (William and his brother Prince Harry) coped with it."

And George Michael is convinced Diana will be smiling down on her son when he weds Middleton in London at the end of the month.: "I'm absolutely sure that Diana would have loved the whole thing."

George Michael hopes William shares his mother's love for the former Wham! star's music - and he believes his album "Older" helped the young prince cope with Diana's death.

Chatting to newsman Piers Morgan on his CNN show, he explains, "She was a big fan and she had a copy of Older, which was an album about bereavement, about four or five months before it went out... and she loved it."

"I did once see a documentary where William was playing that album, which makes me think that he found it comforting... I was very touched by that."