Harry: All of us lost somebody
Heart-rending echoes of 1997 as princes pay tribute to their mother
TWENTY years ago, dazed with shock and grief, the young princes made this very same tour of the tributes left to Princess Diana in an unprecedented outpouring of public emotion.
Just 15 and 12 at the time, William and Harry were bewildered by the mourning of so many people who had never even met their beloved mother.
But viewing fresh tributes outside Kensington Palace in the rain yesterday, on the eve of today’s anniversary of her death, they acknowledged continuing public sorrow as Harry said: “All of us lost somebody.”
William and Harry added to the display with flowers handed to them by members of the public who had travelled from across the country to pay their respects.
A note attached to one read: “We remember all the good things your mother did... her wonderful and heartfelt charity work, her love for her sons and people who were suffering anywhere in the world, which was and is an example to the rest of the Royal Family.”
Pointing to where the sea of tributes had stretched to two decades ago, William said to his brother: “Last time, it was all the way down.”
Today the brothers will spend the day behind closed doors reflecting privately on the horrifying moment in 1997 that their lives shifted for ever.
The princes were at Balmoral 20 years ago today as the news broke that 36-year-old Diana had died at 3am on August 31, 1997 after a car crash alongside her lover Dodi Fayed in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris.
In the days that followed, her sons were watched by the world in their grief.
Overwhelmed with sadness, they viewed tributes and shook hands with crowds outside Kensington Palace the night before her funeral, when images of them walking behind her coffin were beamed around the world.
Now as adults they have reclaimed the London palace – where Diana lived for 15 years – as their home, and there yesterday they joined William’s wife Kate in a
tour of the White Garden planted in Diana’s memory. They said they were “thrilled” with the sunken garden, filled with white forget-menots, roses, tulips and narcissi.
William remembered times spent there when he and Harry were boys, saying: “We used to come here a lot.”
Harry said he wanted to take some of the plants to his own plot in the Palace grounds after the display is over.
In the garden the princes met charity chiefs from the six organisations Diana stayed patron of on leaving the Royal Family after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Harry said of his mother’s determination to shine a light on the causes
close to her heart, including HIV, homelessness and land mines: “I can imagine for a lot of you it was like ‘Right here we go, now we’ve got her, lets do something’ then suddenly she’s snapped away. If I can put it this way, all of us lost somebody.”
He urged representatives from the charities to “tell me a story about my mum”. Peter Waddup of The Leprosy Mission obliged by telling how Diana would always go and speak to a person in need, even when advised not to.
He said: “When she first went to Indonesia she was in a hospital and saw a ward with leprosy patients in it.
“She asked about it and was told that she shouldn’t go in there – so she promptly did, while the dignitaries watched from behind the windows.
“She sat with them on the beds and held their hands, she was prepared to do what people had never done.”
Kenneth Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network said Harry is “very uncomplicated just like his mother”. He added: “His first question to me was ‘Did my mother make a difference?’ and I told him ‘You bet she did.’
“I said his mother changed a lot of lives, and he seemed very touched.”
Kate, wearing a green floral Prada dress, told English National Ballet boss Tamara Rojo how two-year-old Princess Charlotte was following in Diana’s footsteps learning to dance, adding: “She absolutely loves it.”
William said of his mother: “I remember her showing me ballet shoes she had been given and she was so proud of them. She loved dancing, she was a fantastic dancer.
“We’ve been going through her music collection recently and there’s some quite eclectic stuff in there.”
Until recently the brothers had rarely spoken about Diana’s death, but opened up ahead of the 20th anniversary in BBC Documentary Diana 7 Days and ITV programme Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.
William told the BBC: “I remember
just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy.”
Harry also praised his father Prince Charles, who is spending the anniversary at his Scottish home Birkhall, for being there for them as they struggled to come to terms with the news.
And they detailed their conflicted feelings at walking behind Diana’s coffin at such a young age, having to greet grieving and “wailing” crowds.
William said: “People wanted to grab us, to touch us. They were shouting, wailing at us, throwing flowers, and yelling, sobbing, breaking down, people fainted, collapsed.
“I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to cry and show such emotion as they did when they didn’t really know our mother.”
As the brothers proved yesterday, they clearly do understand now.