Prince Harry claimed that he cried only once following the 1997 death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
In new interview footage advertising the release of his autobiography Spare. Prince Harry describes how he and Prince William were unable to express emotion while meeting mourners in public.
He revealed to ITV’s Tom Bradby that he cried at his mother’s funeral.
The Duke of Sussex stated that he felt “some shame” while passing by flower-bearing people outside Kensington Palace.
Throughout Spare, the absence of Princess Diana in Prince Harry’s life is emphasized.
The book is not scheduled to be published until the 10th of January. But excerpts were leaked after early sales of some copies in Spain.
Prince Harry stated in the ITV interview that “everyone remembers where they were” when his mum died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997. The interview will air on Sunday evening.
He stated that he had reviewed the footage of himself and his brother interacting with mourners a few days later.
Prince Harry cried after Diana’s death
“I cried once, at the funeral, and you know I go into length [in Spare] about how bizarre that was and how there was some guilt that I felt. And I believe William felt as well, just strolling around the exterior of Kensington Palace,” he explained.
“Our mother received 50,000 bouquets, and there we were, beaming and shaking hands with strangers…
“We couldn’t figure out why their hands were wet when we shook them. But it was because they were wiping away tears.”
Prince Harry continues, “Everyone thought and felt as if they knew our mother. Yet the two closest people to her. The two most cherished by her, were unable to display emotion at the time.”
Prince Harry’s trip behind his mother’s coffin at her funeral. Where crowds reached out to him and he was unable to mourn in public, is described in Spare.
He also describes hiring a chauffeur to take him through the road tunnel in Paris where his mother died. In the hopes of achieving closure after “a decade of continuous pain.”
And he claims his father did not embrace him when he told him Princess Diana had died while sitting on his Balmoral bed.
The ITV interview with Prince Harry will be the first of four broadcast appearances to promote Spare in the coming days. He also spoke with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News on Sunday night. Michael Strahan on Good Morning America on Monday, and Stephen Colbert on the CBS Late Show on Tuesday.
Eve-of-Battle speech during the Iraq War
Prince Harry’s claim that he was physically assaulted by his brother. Information about how Harry lost his virginity, details about drug use. And a claim that he killed 25 Taliban militants while serving in Afghanistan are among the other disclosures in Spare.
Several prominent military veterans have criticized his claim that he had killed Taliban fighters.
Ex-colonel Tim Collins, famous for his Eve-of-Battle speech during the Iraq War in which he urged his men to “show respect”. Stated that Prince Harry had “badly let the side down” and that “we don’t do notches on the rifle buttstock.”
Both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have declined to comment on the book’s contents.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced that they would step down from their major royal roles in 2020 to pursue financial independence.
In February of last year, they discussed their strained relationship with other members of the royal family with Oprah Winfrey. And a Netflix documentary series about the couple, released last month, showed additional tension.
