25 years after the death of his mother Lady Diana, Prince Harry keeps a traumatic memory of the day of her funeral.
On September 6, 1997, the world watched from the pavements of London and in front of television screens the funeral of the late Lady Diana, who died on August 31, 1997 in a car accident in Paris. But while millions of Britons were mourning the death of the Princess of Hearts, two little boys were facing an even more terrible grief: that of their mother. Prince William and Prince Harry, aged 15 and 12, walked behind her coffin to Westminster Abbey, accompanied by their father, Prince Charles, their grandfather, Prince Philip, and their uncle, Charles Spencer.
Even today, the images of this procession continue to mark the spirits. Prince Harry has a particularly gloomy memory of it. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for the mental health series The Me You Can’t See, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he is still haunted by the sound of horses’ hooves hitting the asphalt as the procession moved along. “What I remember most is the sound of the horses’ hooves along the sidewalk,” he confided. “At that point, we were both in shock. I felt like I was no longer in my body, just walking to do what was expected of me.”
I was like, ‘That’s my mom. You’ve never met her
Upset by the loss of his mother, the now 36-year-old prince remembers suffering greatly as he watched the outpouring of emotion around him. “I was only showing a tenth of the emotion that everyone was expressing. I was like, ‘This is my mom. You’ve never met her'” Already in 2017, the Duke of Sussex told journalist Angela Levin of his anger at being so exposed to the public during the most difficult time of his life: “My mother had just died, and I had to walk behind her coffin while thousands of people watched me, and millions more on television,” he had become indignant. “I don’t think any child should have to do that, no matter what the circumstances. I don’t think that could happen today,” he concluded.