WILLS: I STILL GRIEVE
Bares pain over Di
Two decades after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, Prince William says he is only just coming to terms with the loss.
“It has taken me almost 20 years to get to that stage,” he told British GQ magazine.
“I still find it difficult now because at the time, it was so raw. And also, it is not like most people’s grief, because everyone else knows about it, everyone knows the story, everyone knows her.”
The heir to the British throne was 15 in 1997 when he learned his mother was killed in a Paris car crash. Now 34 — just two years younger than Diana was when she died — he says he’s still dealing with the trauma.
“People think shock can’t last that long, but it does,” he said. “It’s such an unbelievably big moment in your life, and it never leaves you; you just learn to deal with it.”
He said he regrets his mom will never know his wife, Kate Middleton, and their kids, Prince George, 3, and Princess Charlotte, 2.
“I would like to have had her advice,” he said. “I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.”
Still, he said he will “fight” to make sure his kids have a normal childhood.
“I want George to grow up in a real living environment. I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls. He has to be out there. I will fight for them to have a normal life,” he told the magazine.
“Stability at home is so important to me. I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world and that is so important to both of us as parents.”
With his grandfather Prince Philip, 95, retiring from public life, William is leaving his part-time job as a helicopter pilot in August so he can devote himself to his royal duties full time.
He, his wife and kids will also relocate from their home in Norfolk to London’s Kensington Palace.
William’s revelations come as he, Kate and Prince Harry have been spearheading a campaign, Heads Together, to lift the stigma surrounding mental health.
Last month, Harry, 32, revealed that he suffered after shutting down emotionally over his mom’s death.
“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions,” he told The Telegraph.