Prince Harry has reportedly become estranged from his royal family, and reportedly “wants peace” for the sake of Diana, Princess of Wales’ memory.
“I’d come to those gardens because I wanted peace. I wanted it more than anything. I wanted it for my family’s sake, and for my own — but also for hers [Diana],” the Duke wrote in his “explosive” 2023 memoir, Spare
“I knew how desperately she would want — no, did want — peace between her boys, and between us two and Pa,” Harry confessed in the bestselling tome.
Diana, Princess of Wales, passed away in a car crash in the late summer of 1997 while driving through a tunnel in Paris, France, with her romantic partner, Dodi Fayed, drunk driver Henri Paul, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.
The fifth in line to the British throne revealed that he was all alone with his grief after his mother died when he was only 12. “The biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help. I didn’t have that support structure, that network, or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me,” the Duke of Sussex stated in his 2023 Netflix documentary, Heart of Invictus.
“Losing my mum at such a young age, the trauma I had I was never aware of,” Harry continued. “It was never discussed, and I didn’t really talk about it, and I suppressed it like most other youngsters would have done. When it all came fizzing out, I was bouncing off the walls — what is going on here? — I am now feeling everything instead of being young.”
The young prince and his 15-year-old brother, Prince William, were vacationing with the royals at Balmoral Castle when the news broke of the princess’ passing. Charles broke the devastating announcement to both princes’ whom he awoke in the early hours of the morning.
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In his memoir, Harry wrote about how he has undergone “decades of effort to reconstruct that morning” before adding, “what I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.” This counters what one royal insider claimed was the ex-working royals’ way of “using Mummy once again.”
This insight by the prince follows his May 8 trip to Britain in which he met up with his mother’s side of the extended family for an Invictus games ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Diana’s memory is preserved by her siblings, including Charles, Earl Spencer, who reportedly “sided” recently with Harry and Meghan Markle in their ongoing rift with the royals.
“The fact that the Spencers were out in force for Harry on this visit speaks volumes about where their loyalties lie,” royal author Tom Quinn shared about Harry’s mother’s family’s appearance with him at the event. “Like Harry, the Spencers still view the royal family, to some extent, as the adversary.”
