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Prince Harry lost his mother when he was 12.
Prince Harry (38) lost his mother at the age of 12. Princess Diana (1961-1997) died in a tragic car accident in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997. In his biography “Reserve”, the Duke of Sussex now reports, according to the magazine “People”, how years later he drove the death route himself.
Harry, then 23, was in the French capital for the Rugby World Cup in 2007 when he asked his driver to take him to Diana’s Pont de l’Alma tunnel of death. Ten years earlier, Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed (1955-1997) raced through the tunnel at 100 km/h while fleeing paparazzi. The couple sat in the back of a black Mercedes sedan. Driver Henri Paul (1956–1997) was driving the vehicle but lost control and crashed into a post. Diana’s companions died on the spot, just a few hours later in the hospital.
Tunneling brought Harry back to the beginning of the pain
Harry raced through the tunnel at the same speed as his mother. “We drove off, weaving through traffic and passing the Ritz (hotel) where Mummy had her last meal with her boyfriend that August night,” the book reads. Then they came to the entrance of the tunnel. “We raced ahead, drove over the bump at the entrance to the tunnel that allegedly threw Mummy’s Mercedes off course,” Harry said.
The stretch surprised the prince: «I leaned back. I said softly, ‘Is that all? There is nothing. Just a straight tunnel›. I had always imagined the tunnel as a treacherous passage.” There is no reason anyone should ever die in it. Actually, after the trip, Harry hoped to be able to deal better with his mother’s death. “Instead, it brought me back to the beginning of the pain,” writes Harry.
Prince Harry collapsed at funeral
Before the fatal accident, Harry was still on the phone with Diana. But the Duke of Sussex was playing with his brother, Prince William (40) and his cousins when the call came from his mum. “So I kept the conversation short. Impatient, I just wanted to keep playing and choked her off on the phone.” To this day he regrets it. “I wish I had apologized for it. I wish I’d found words to describe how much I loved her,” Harry said.
A few days after Diana’s death, Harry was forced to live with his brother and father, Charles III. (74), today’s king, running after her coffin. In his memoirs, Harry reports that he collapsed at the funeral. “My body spasmed and my chin dropped and I started sobbing uncontrollably into my hands. I felt ashamed for breaking the family ethos, but I couldn’t take it any longer.”
Meghan knelt at Diana’s grave
According to “The Sun”, Harry revealed in his book that he brought Duchess Meghan (41) to his mother’s final resting place in 2022. “I finally wanted to bring the girl of my dreams home to meet my mother.” They took a boat to the memorial, which is located on a small island on the Althorp Park estate. He laid flowers before leaving Meghan alone. “When I came back she was on her knees, eyes closed and palms flat on the stone,” Harry recalls. Meghan told him she asked his mother for “clarity” and “guidance.”
Prince Harry’s memoir “Reserve” will be released on Tuesday (January 10). But because they accidentally ended up in several bookstores in Spain, British media were able to secure copies in advance and publish spicy details. (bsn)