Prince Harry
No hug! This is how Charles told him about Diana’s death
Prince Harry and then Prince Charles at Princess Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997 in London.
© Princess Diana Archives / Getty Images
It was a moment that “brought everything to a standstill” for Prince Harry: When his father King Charles brought him the news of his mother Princess Diana’s death, there was no physical closeness.
On August 31, 1997, two weeks before his 13th birthday, Prince Harry, 38, lost his beloved mother Princess Diana, †36. It might be the most painful experience a teenager has to go through. In his explosive autobiography, Spare, which accidentally hit Spanish bookstores five days early, Harry chronicles the precise moment his father, King Charles, 74, told him of his mother’s death, revealing: “Dad didn’t give me a hug “.
Prince Harry didn’t want to believe Diana’s death and pleaded: “No no no”
But from the beginning: It was actually a cheerful evening. Prince Harry and his brother Prince William, 40, snuck out in their pajamas and met up with Queen Elizabeth’s bagpiper, †96, who allowed them to play his instrument. That’s what the British “The Sun” says in the memoirs. Later, when the boys were back in their room, the current king sat on the edge of Harry’s bed. The US celebrity portal “Pagesix” has excerpts of this conversation from the book. The Duke of Sussex writes: “[Papa] sat on the edge of the bed. He put a hand on my knee. ‘My dear boy, Mom was in a car accident.'”
34 images
Harry hoped Diana was okay, waiting for Charles to confirm that. But unfortunately everything turned out differently. The then only 12-year-old felt an “inner change” when he knew what was coming next. “I started silently begging Pa or God or both, ‘No, no, no, no,'” he recalls.
Charles detailed Harry Diana’s ‘complications’ and ‘head injury’
Charles then told him about the medical “complications” and a “head injury” and then said: “Mummy was hurt pretty badly and was taken to the hospital, darling boy”. He used to call me ‘honey’ but now he said it quite a lot,” Harry said, adding: “His voice was soft. He was in shock, it seemed.” Especially Charles’ sentence “I’m afraid she didn’t make it” was “remembered in the 38-year-old’s memory like arrows in a board.” Then “everything came to a standstill”.
No hug: “He wasn’t good at it”
According to Harry, while Charles broke the shocking news to his boy, he rarely allowed physical contact. He writes: “Dad didn’t give me a hug. He wasn’t good at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in a crisis like this?” His hand only fell on Harry’s knee and the then Prince of Wales is said to have said: “Everything will be fine.”
Sources used: thesun.co.uk, pagesix.com