In a new interview, Prince Harry recalls the emotional days following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and how he followed his royal duties after her passing.

Speaking to the U.K.'s ITV for a sit-down set to air Jan. 8—two days before the release of his controversial tell-all memoir Spare, the former senior royal recalled how he, at age 12, and brother Prince William, then 15, joined their dad, now-King Charles III, in greeting mourners and viewing floral tributes around Kensington Palace in honor of the late Princess of Wales soon after she was killed at age 36 in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

"I cried once, at the burial. I go into detail about how strange it was and how, actually, there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace," Harry told ITV's Tom Bradby. "And there are 50,000 bouquets to our mother. And there we were, shaking people's hands, smiling. I've seen the videos. I look back over it all. The wet hands that we were shaking—I couldn't understand why their hands were wet."

Harry then explained, "It was all the tears that they were wiping away."

That crowd's reactions to the death of the woman often dubbed the "People's Princess" marked a sharp contrast to how her sons appeared to them, according to Harry. "Everyone thought and felt like they knew my mum," he said, "and the two closest people to her—the two most loved people by her—were unable to show any emotion in that moment."

Diana was laid to rest Sept. 6, 1997 in a national funeral that aired live around the world. Harry, William, Charles and Diana's brother Earl Charles Spencer walked behind her coffin during the procession through the streets of London.

Harry has spoken about his mother's death before in interviews. In his upcoming memoir, he recalls how his father told him about his ex-wife's sudden passing.

According to a copy of the Spanish language version of Spare, titled En La Sombra, obtained by NBC News, Charles sat Harry down on a bed. Calling him "my dear son," the then-Prince of Wales informed him that Diana had been in a car accident and that she had sustained injuries that seemed unlikely to improve.

"What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry," Harry said in the book, per the copy obtained by NBC News. "Not a tear. My father did not hug me."

NBC News has reached out to Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace and they have declined to comment. A rep for Harry also declined to comment to NBC News on the record.

Source:
courtesy of E!ONLINE

by CORINNE HELLER

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