Both Prince William and Prince Harry have spoken openly about the immense grief they felt when they learned of the death of their mother, Princess Diana.
Diana was only 36 when she died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. William was 15 and Harry just 12, spending their summer holiday at Balmoral with their father when the devastating news came. Their father’s painful task of telling them their mother was gone left a lasting imprint on their lives.
The Funeral and Public Grief
Princess Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997, watched by more than 32 million people in the UK, became one of the most unforgettable public events of the decade. The image of the two young princes walking behind their mother’s coffin remains etched in the world’s memory.
In a 2023 interview, Harry admitted he did not cry until his mother’s coffin was finally laid to rest at Althorp. “Once my mother’s coffin actually went into the ground, that was the first time that I actually cried,” he told Anderson Cooper. “There was never another time.”
Harry recalled feeling guilt, believing mourners they met seemed to express more emotion than he and his brother could. “I remember how wet people’s hands were from wiping their own tears. I couldn’t understand it. And one of the strangest parts was taking flowers from people and placing them with the rest, as if I was a middle person for their grief.”
Prince William’s Numbness and Solace in Scotland
In the 2017 BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days, William described his immediate reaction as “completely numb, disorientated, dizzy.” He remembered repeatedly asking: “Why me? Why has this happened to us?”
Just hours later, he attended church at Crathie Kirk, still in shock. William said he found comfort in both the service and the Scottish outdoors in the days that followed. “The connection I feel to Scotland will forever run deep,” he admitted, crediting the landscape with helping him cope.
Harry’s Recollection of His Father Breaking the News
In his memoir Spare, Harry described being woken by his father, now King Charles, to be told the news no child could bear. “I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right. And I remember him not doing that,” Harry wrote. Instead, his father told him simply: “She didn’t make it.”
Harry explained: “These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board. And then everything seemed to come to a stop.”
Speaking again in 2023, he revealed he was too shocked to cry at the time. “Never shed a single tear at that point. Twelve years old. Sort of—7, 7:30 in the morning. Your father comes in, sits on your bed, puts his hand on your knee and tells you, ‘There’s been an accident.’”
He added that Charles, not known for openly showing emotion, did not embrace him. “Pa didn’t hug me. His hand fell once more on my knee and he said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ But after that, nothing was OK for a long time.”