‘LOOKING BACK, I’M GLAD I TOOK PART IN MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL’
▶ Two decades after death of Diana, Princess of Wales, her sons recall hardest day of their lives
Twenty years after the death of his mother, Prince Harry says he was glad to be part of her funeral cortege.
In a documentary marking the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, Prince Harry – fifth in line to the British throne and who was 12 when she died – said that no child should have been asked to walk behind a parent’s coffin in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
In a 90-minute film to be broadcast by the BBC on Sunday, the prince told of how it was decided that he and his older brother, William, would join the funeral procession.
“I think it was a group decision,” he said.
“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.
“Generally, I don’t have an opinion on whether that was right or wrong. I am glad I was part of it. Looking back on it now, I am very glad I was part of it.”
William, who was 15 at the time, said that walking behind the coffin was “one of the hardest things” he had to do.
He described the difficulties of being a prince and having to carry out his duties in that role while coping with the loss.
“It was that balance between duty and family and that was what we had to do,” William said. “I think the hardest thing was that walk. It was a very long, lonely walk.
“But then again the balance between me being Prince William and having to do my bit versus private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry having just lost his mother.”
Walking with William and Harry were their maternal uncle, Earl Spencer, grandfather Prince Philip and their father, Prince Charles.
The princes revealed it was their father who broke the news of their mother’s death while they were staying at Balmoral Castle, the royal holiday home in Scotland.
“One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died,” Harry said. “How do you deal with that, I don’t know.
“And he tried to do his best to make sure we were protected and looked after. He was going through the same grieving process as well.”
The brothers praised their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who was also at Balmoral, for protecting them in their grief. The queen was criticised at the time for an apparent lack of compassion. She stayed in Balmoral afterwards and made no public pronouncement about her former daughter-inlaw’s death for five days.
“At the time, you know, my grandmother wanted to protect her two grandsons and my father as well,” said William.
“Our grandmother deliberately removed the newspapers, and things like that, so there was nothing in the house at all. So we didn’t know what was going on.
“We had the privacy to mourn, to collect our thoughts, and to just have that space away from everybody.”
Britain’s prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, who was also interviewed by the makers of the programme, described the effect the princess’s death had on the British monarch.
“She was very sad about Diana,” Mr Blair said.
“She was concerned about the monarchy herself because the queen has a very strong instinct about public opinion and how it plays.”
Diana died on August 31, 1997 from injuries sustained when a car in which she was travelling, pursued by photographers, crashed in the Pont de l’Alma underpass in Paris.
Harry spoke about discovering that photographers had taken pictures of his mother while she lay injured in the aftermath of the crash.
“I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people who chased her through into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was dying on the back seat of the car,” the prince said.
“She was very much still alive on the back seat, and those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying.
“And then those photographs made their way back to news desks.”