King Charles didn’t hug 12-year-old Prince Harry when he broke the news to his youngest son that his mother Princess Diana had been in a car accident, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir claims.
Prince Harry, 38, revealed the moment he found out about the car crash in Paris in August 1997 for the first time in his long-anticipated memoir Spare. He also revealed how he and William each have a lock of their mother’s hair, which was cut from her head by her sister Sarah shortly after she died, and recalls being introduced to Dodi Fayed, who was his mother’s ‘friend’, and whom he and William thought was a ‘pretty nice guy’.
The Duke writes about how the King sat him down on the bed to break the news of the car accident, calling him ‘my dear son’ as he told how Diana had sustained head injuries that didn’t look likely to improve.
He writes: ‘What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.’
Prince Harry (pictured with William and King Charles at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997) has recalled the moment he was told about his mother’s death by his father, whom he claims did not hug him while breaking the news. The revelation comes from his explosive new memoir ‘Spare’ which has been released in Spain today
Harry recalls how the King ‘examined the folds of the old quilts, blankets, and sheets’ on the bed while breaking the terrible news – as Harry struggled to understand how bad the crash had been
As it dawned on Harry how grave his mother’s condition was, he recalls ‘silently begging my father, or God, or both’ that it wasn’t true.
He recalls the King telling him that there had been ‘complications’ with Diana’s condition after she had been ‘seriously wounded’ in the crash.
Harry (pictured with Princess Diana and Prince William in 1995) revealed how he met Diana’s ‘friend’ Dodi Fayed and thought he was a ‘pretty nice guy’
However at first, Harry recalls his 12-year-old self asking to go and visit his mother in the hospital, before the King explained her condition ‘hasn’t recovered anymore’ Although Harry says some aspects of his memory may not be entirely accurate, there are things he remembers ‘clear as day’ all these years on.
The heartbreaking recollection of finding out his mother had died is in Spare, Harry’s explosive memoir which is set for release in the UK on Monday
While he claims his father did not cry while breaking the news, he said the king put his hand on Harry’s knee and claimed everything would be ok.
After his father left, he recalls sitting by himself while his brother William, whom he affectionately calls ‘Willy’, sat in a separate room.
Harry claims his memory has undergone ‘decades of effort to reconstruct that morning’, but after all this time he has come to an ‘inescapable conclusion’ – that he stayed alone in the room until 9am the following morning when the piper began to play outside.
Harry’s heartbreaking recollection of his mother’s death comes as one of many explosive claims from Spare, his long-anticipated memoir which is set for release in the UK on Monday 10 January.
The emotive passage comes after Harry speaks about Diana’s relationship with Dodi Fayed after he and William had met him while on holiday with Diana in St Tropez.
He recalled the three of them laughing a lot as they holidayed together before being introduced to Dodi.
Harry recalls seeing his mother light up in Dodi’s presence as he described the filmmaker as ‘cheeky’ – nonetheless, he seemed ‘nice’.
He reflects on a conversation he had with William about their mother’s new partner – and how they both agreed that, as long as she was happy, then they were happy for her.
Elsewhere in the book, Harry relives his memory of the days following his mother’s death and how he battled with himself to accept the truth of the situation. Despite being told what had happened, he recalled telling himself his mother was just ‘hiding’ and not really dead – a theory he revealed later in the book that he often returned to for comfort.
He recalled how he and William were forbidden from watching the TV so they could be shielded from news reports about Diana’s death.
After the King and Diana’s sisters had gone to France to identify Diana’s body, Harry recalls being reunited with his father and aunties in London.
When they arrived and met with their Aunt Sarah (Lady Sarah McCorquodale), Harry recalled her handing each brother a little blue box which contained a lock of Diana’s blonde hair.
Even so, Harry recalled not believing the hair belonged to his mother, and convincing himself it was someone else’s so he did not have to come to terms with the reality of her death.
In the book he also reveals that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.
The Duke of Sussex, who was known as ‘Captain Wales’ in the military, wrote that he did not think of those killed ‘as people’ but instead ‘chess pieces’ he had taken off the board.
Harry, who during his second tour flew an Apache attack helicopter, said it was ‘not a fact that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either’.
He also sensationally claimed that his brother William called Meghan ‘rude’ and ‘pointed a finger at her’ during a furious bust-up after the Duchess of Sussex told Kate that she must have ‘baby brain because of her hormones’.
Details of the alleged row have appeared in Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare, which has been published in Spain.
Harry writes that Meghan made the comment during the run-up to the Sussexes’ wedding in May 2018. After apparently upsetting Kate, Harry says Meghan apologised and insisted that is how she speaks to her friends.
In another extraordinary excerpt, leaked to the left-wing Guardian newspaper, Harry recalls what he describes as a physical attack by his sibling, which he claims left him with visible injuries, including ‘scrapes and bruises’.
The furious row allegedly broke out in the kitchen of his London home, Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace in 2019.
William is said to have branded Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ and insisted he was trying to ‘help’ his younger brother during a meeting about ‘the whole rolling catastrophe’ of their failing relationship and Harry’s rows with the press.
Harry accused his brother of ‘parroting the press narrative’ about his American wife before a screaming match ensued, ending in a physical altercation, the book claims.
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