Palace lied & said Princes wanted to walk by coffin
wanted me to speak for her. I said, ‘She just would not want them to do this’. I was lied to and told they wanted to do it – which, of course, they didn’t.”
The earl said that it “wouldn’t happen” today. He added: “Actually, I think that’s part of Diana’s legacy.
“She has left behind this image of what royalty can be... and what it needn’t be.”
Prince Harry recently said, “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that”, in relation to the cortege. And his uncle described the walk as “the most horrifying half-hour of my life”.
He said: “It was just ghastly, walking behind my sister’s body with two boys who were obviously massively grieving their mother. It was really harrowing. I still have nightmares about it now.” The earl also said he believes Diana would have been proud of his eulogy, which was seen by many as an attack on the Royal Family and the media.
He said: “Every word I said was true. It was important for me to be honest.
“I wasn’t looking to make any jabs at anyone. I was trying to celebrate Diana and if by doing that it showed up particularly the press in a bad way, well, they had that coming.”
Asked if the Queen had responded to his eulogy in Westminster Abbey, he replied: “Somebody I know very well said to her, ‘What do you think?’.
“She said: ‘He had every right to say whatever he felt. It was his sister’s funeral.’” The earl also revealed that a number of people have tried to burgle Diana’s burial monument on his Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire.
“We’ve had four attempted break-ins in the past 20 years, and I’m very glad that we’ve seen all of them off. There are some odd people out there.”
Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty Magazine, said the intruders may have been trying to get pictures of the tomb.
“They would want to take photographs of the grave and sell them to European news organisations – the British press wouldn’t run them.”