The Duke of Sussex recalled the moment in his forthcoming book Spare when King Charles III, his father, informed him of Princess Diana’s death.
According to a copy of the book that was acquired by NBC News, King Charles III put Harry, who was twelve years old at the time, down on the bed. After that, Harry says that Charles addressed him as “my dear son” and proceeded to tell him that Diana had been in a vehicle accident and that she had incurred injuries that did not seem likely to recover.
“What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry,” Harry wrote. “Not a tear. My father did not hug me.”
The Royal Palaces of Kensington and Buckingham have both been contacted by NBC News, but they have both refused to comment. In the same vein, a representative for Prince Harry refused to respond to NBC News in an official capacity.
On August 31, 1997, Diana passed away after being involved in an automobile accident in Paris. She was thirty six years old.
In the most recent episode of Harry & Meghan, the docu series he and Meghan Markle starred in for Netflix, Harry discussed what it was like for him and his brother Prince William to grieve their mother’s loss while the media was watching them.
“When my mum died we had two hats to wear,” he said during the episode. “One was two grieving sons wanting to cry, grieve and process that grief because of losing our mum. And two, was the royal hat show no emotion, get out there, meet the people, shake their hands. The U.K. literally swept me and William up as their children with an expectation to see myself and William out and about was really hard for the two of us.”
Despite the fact that Harry said in the documentary series that he doesn’t “have many early memories” of his mother, he said he remembers the most is how they were harassed by the paparazzi and how she “did such a good job in trying to protect us.” Harry says that he feels the responsibility to protect Meghan and his two children, Archie Harrison, who is three years old, and Lilibet “Lili” Diana, who is 19 months old.
