PRINCES: MOMENT DADDY TOLD US MUMMY WAS DEAD

PRINCE Harry has told for the first time how Prince Charles broke the news of his mother’s death.

In an emotional interview, he and Prince William also reveal their reactions to being told that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been killed in a car crash in Paris. Opening up on the tumultuous seven days that followed the accident, the princes give a vivid account of how they had to conceal their devastation amid the extraordinary outpouring of public grief.

A BBC documentary, to be broadcast on Sunday, shows William and Harry speaking of their shock and bewilderment at the ‘peculiar’ scale of public mourning. Other startling revelations include: How the Queen removed newspapers

from Balmoral Castle so her grandsons would not be upset;

But the monarch was ‘hurt’ by the public criticism of her reaction to her former daughter-in-law’s death;

Discussions about whether Diana’s boys should walk behind her coffin went on until hours before the funeral itself;

Prince harry, then 12, felt so traumatised by his mother’s death that he vowed never to cry in public for the rest of his life – but almost broke down when elton John sang at her funeral;

Diana’s sister, Sarah, still agonises over why her sister wasn’t wearing a seatbelt that night.

The princes also give a heart-rending account of having to walk behind Diana’s coffin at the funeral, with William recalling that he ‘just wanted to go into a room and cry’.

Paying tribute to his father for his attempts to comfort them in the aftermath of Diana’s death, Prince harry says: ‘One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died.

‘But he was there for us, he was the one out of two left and he tried to do his best and to make sure we were protected and looked after.

‘But, you know, he was going through the same grieving process as well.’ harry says his reaction to being told the news was one of ‘disbelief’, and there was ‘no sudden outpouring of grief’.

William says he was ‘disorientated, dizzy… and very confused’. he adds: ‘I remember just feeling completely numb. And you keep asking yourself “why me?” all the time. “What have I done?” ’

The documentary, Diana, 7 Days, marks the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death and tells the behind-the-scenes story of the week before her funeral. It features some of the major figures at the time including former prime minister Tony Blair, senior royal aides and Diana’s family.

In the film, the brothers praise their grandmother, the Queen, who faced an unprecedented public backlash for remaining at Balmoral with them in the dark days after their mother died on August 31, 1997.

‘I think it was a very hard decision for my grandmother to make. She felt very torn between being a grandmother to William and harry and her Queen role,’ William says.

The documentary, made by respected US director henry Singer, who made the documentary 9/11: The Falling Man, sees the princes speak with raw honesty about their emotions at the time.

harry says of their return to London from Scotland: ‘People were grabbing us and pulling us into their arms and stuff. I don’t blame anyone for that, of course I don’t. But it was those moments that were quite shocking. People were screaming, people were crying, people’s hands were wet because of the tears they had just wiped away from their faces before shaking my hand.’

‘It was one of the hardest things I have ever done,’ says William.

he added: ‘I just remember hiding behind my fringe basically, at a time when I had a lot of hair, and my head’s down a lot.’

Aides say it is the first and last time the princes will speak about their mother’s death in such intimate detail.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said they were ‘glad’ they had contributed to the documentary but wanted to concentrate on honouring her legacy rather than talk about the past.