Prince Harry now says he doesn’t regret walking behind Diana’s casket
For months now, we’ve been in the midst of The Summer of Diana, where every single person and media outlet wants to mark the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death with questionable “never before released” interviews and various shady exclusives. Prince William and Prince Harry sat down for a series of specials about their mother. Harry did a stand-alone exclusive with Newsweek a few months back too, and the interview ended up being massively controversial for about a dozen different reasons. I was focused mostly on Harry’s whinging about his privilege, but he also said this about walking behind his mother’s casket in 1997: “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.” Many assumed that Harry was criticizing his father for basically “forcing” him to walk behind Diana’s casket. But in a new special, Harry changes his mind about it.
In an interview for a new documentary, Diana: Seven Days, focusing on the events of the week following Diana’s death, Prince Harry says: “I think it was a group decision. Before I knew it, I found myself in a situation with a suit on and a black tie, a white shirt, I think, and I was part of it. Generally I don’t have an opinion on whether that was right or wrong. I am glad I was part of it. Looking back on it now, I am very glad I was part of it.”
The interview forms part of a new documentary that will be screened on Sunday in the U.K., ahead of the anniversary of Diana’s death on Aug. 31. Previews have been made available to the British media, and details of the interviews are plastered across most U.K. newspapers Wednesday.
Speaking about the controversial decision to have them walk behind the coffin, William says: “It wasn’t an easy decision and it was sort of a collective family decision to do that. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It was that balance between duty and family and that was what we had to do. I think the hardest thing was that walk. It was a very long, lonely walk.”
Harry reveals it was his father who came to the boys to break the news. He says: “One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died. How you deal with that, I don’t know. But he was there for us, he was the one out of two left. And he tried to do his best to make sure we were protected and looked after. He was going through the same grieving process as well.”
William describes his confusion at the public’s open display of grief on the day of the funeral.
He says: “I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to cry as loud as they did and show such emotion as they did when they didn’t really know our mother. Everyone was crying and wailing and wanting to touch us. It was very peculiar but obviously very touching. Again, I was 15 and Harry was 12, nothing can really describe it. It was very unusual. People wanted to grab us, to touch us. They were shouting, wailing, literally wailing at us, throwing flowers and yelling and sobbing and breaking down. They were fainting and collapsing.”
Harry adds: “People were grabbing us and pulling us into their arms and stuff. I don’t blame anyone for that, of course I don’t. But it was those moments that were quite a shocking. People were screaming, people were crying, people’s hands were wet because of the tears they had just wiped away from their faces before shaking my hand. It was so unusual for people to see young boys like that not crying when everybody else was crying. What we were doing was being asked of us was verging on normal then, but now…. Looking at us then, we must have been in just this state of shock.”
[From The Daily Beast]
I’ve re-watched some footage of the funeral over the years, and what’s striking to me as I get older is how none of the men/boys are touching each other as they walked behind Diana’s casket. Maybe that’s a very American view, but especially with Harry at the time – who was just shy of his 13th birthday and very small – it seemed like a moment where Charles or Philip should have physically comforted Harry and William with a hand on the shoulder or arm. Just some kind of physical contact, to let the boys know that they weren’t all alone, which was ironically something Diana always knew: that a comforting touch is powerful. As for the rest of it… I always felt like Harry and William would have regretted NOT walking behind her casket as they got older, so I’m glad that Harry acknowledges how he really feels now.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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