The longest walk
It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, that walk. It felt like she was almost walking along beside us to get us through it William
THE Princes’ walk behind the gun carriage bearing their mother’s body to her funeral became an iconic image of a nation’s grief. As William tells the BBC tonight: ‘It was that balance between duty and family and that was what we had to do. It was a very long, lonely walk. I kept my head down a lot. I just hid behind my fringe. It was just like a tiny bit of a safety blanket.
‘I felt if I looked at the floor with my hair over my face no one could see me. It sounds ridiculous now but at the time it was important to me to get through the day.’
Harry has been more outspoken. In the magazine Newsweek, he said: ‘My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.’
Talking to the BBC he is more conciliatory, saying: ‘Before I knew it, I found myself in a situation with a suit on and a black tie, a white shirt, I think, and I was part of it. Looking back on it now, I am very glad I was part of it.’ He adds: ‘To this day I can’t remember what I was thinking. I was so focused on getting it done and doing everything that was asked of me there and then, and making sure I did my mother proud.’
In the same programme he pays tribute to his father’s bravery in breaking the news of Diana’s death, acknowledging that: ‘He was going through the same grieving process as well.’ William also praises the Queen, who had faced a national backlash for cloistering her family in Balmoral in the aftermath of the tragedy. He tells the BBC: ‘At the time my grandmother wanted to protect her two grandsons, and my father as well. She felt very torn between being a grandmother and her Queen role.’
The Queen’s reticence proved wise. Harry recalls his first appearance in public, travelling home from church four days after Diana’s death and stopping to see the hundreds of floral tributes at Balmoral: ‘I remember coming back in the car and getting out at the front gates. Looking back, the last thing I wanted to do was read what other people were saying about our mother.’
Back in London, the public reaction to the bereaved Princes was even more overwhelming. On the BBC Harry recalls: ‘People were grabbing us and pulling us into their arms. I don’t blame anyone for that, of course I don’t. But it was quite shocking. People were screaming, people were crying, people’s hands were wet because of the tears they had wiped away from their faces before shaking my hand.’
In the same programme, William concurs: ‘Everyone was crying and wailing and wanting to touch us. I was 15 and Harry was 12, nothing can really describe it. People wanted to grab us, to touch us. They were shouting, wailing, literally wailing at us, throwing flowers and yelling and sobbing and breaking down. They were fainting and collapsing.
‘I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to cry as loud as they did and show such emotion when they didn’t really know our mother. I did feel a bit protective about that at times.
‘Looking back, I have learnt to understand what it was she gave the world and what she gave a lot of people.’