The Duke of Sussex and his brother Prince William were ‘unable to weep’ while shaking mourners’ tear-soaked hands. Photo / Supplied
The Duke of Sussex and his brother Prince William were ‘unable to weep’ while shaking mourners’ tear-soaked hands. Photo / Supplied
The Duke of Sussex has revealed he felt “guilt” over not being able to cry in front of weeping mourners at Kensington Palace after his mother’s death.
Prince Harry said that it was not until he watched his mother’s coffin being lowered into the ground on the Althorp Estate that he finally shed tears.
In an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby ahead of the publication of his memoir Spare, he says that this was the only time he cried in the aftermath of her death.
He also says that he thinks the Prince of Wales, his brother, felt guilt as well about not crying alongside the crowds.
In a trailer for the interview, which is due to air in New Zealand at 7.30pm on Monday, he says: “Everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the night my mother died.
“I cried once, at the burial, and you know I go into detail about how strange it was and how, actually, there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace.
“There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother, and there we were shaking people’s hands, smiling. I’ve seen the videos, right, I looked back over it all. And the wet hands that we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet, but it was all the tears that they were wiping away.”
He adds: “Everyone thought, and felt like, they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment.”
The Prince was speaking to ITV’s Tom Bradby ahead of the publication of his book, Spare. Photo / AP
The comments come after days of revelations from the Duke’s book, which is officially published on Tuesday but was put on sale early in Spain.
In his memoirs, he says that he thinks his inability to cry in public may have stemmed from his family’s insistence on not openly showing emotion.
In the Spanish edition of the book, of which The Telegraph has obtained a copy, the Duke writes about the day he and his brother travelled to meet the crowds outside Kensington Palace: “I disliked the touch of those hands. What’s more, I disliked how they made me feel: guilty. Why was there all that crying from people, when I neither cried nor had cried?
“I wanted to cry, and I had tried because my mother’s life had been so sad... but I couldn’t... not a drop.
“Perhaps I had learnt too well, had absorbed too thoroughly the family maxim that crying was never an option – never.”
Harry has previously said that the private burial service was the first time he wept when his mother died, but it had never been clear that it was the only time he was brought to tears in the aftermath of her death.
In the book, the Duke recalls that he did not cry when his father, now the King, told him Diana had been killed in a Paris underpass in August 1997.
He says he came close to tears at the funeral service itself, in Westminster Abbey, as Elton John played Candle in the Wind in front of a congregation of 2000 mourners.
The Duke admitted he came close to tears during the funeral at Westminster Abbey when Elton John played Candle in the Wind. Photo / Getty Images
He writes in the Spanish translation of the book: “My eyes starting to sting and tears nearly falling. Nearly.”
In the end, it was the sight of his mother’s flag-draped casket being lowered into the ground on the island in the Oval Lake at Althorp, Northamptonshire, that brought him to tears.
The Duke writes that it “finally overwhelmed me”, adding: “I went into a convulsion and my chin dropped and I sobbed uncontrollably with my face in my hands.”
In a telling passage, he says: “I was embarrassed at breaching the family’s values, but I couldn’t take it anymore.”
He also reveals in the book that he objected to a plan for Prince William to walk alone behind their mother’s coffin at her funeral, saying: “He would have done the same for me.”
The latest interview trailer was released as it emerged that the Sussexes had filed a 25-page report to dispute allegations that the Duchess had bullied staff members of the Royal household.
Buckingham Palace opened a review into the accusations in March 2021, following reports that two members of staff had been driven out of their jobs by the Duchess’s behaviour. She has always denied the allegations.
Despite the claims published in the book, The Telegraph understands that the King has never given up hope of reconciling with the Duke. Sources insist that Charles believes he will one day be reunited with his son.
It is also understood that Buckingham Palace aides “war-gamed” how to respond to the Duke of Sussex’s memoir, compiling a dossier of all potential allegations in preparation, going through every scenario the Duke could describe in his book.
The book also reveals many of the health professionals Prince Harry has relied on to help him cope with the trauma that followed the loss of his mother, as well as the physical demands placed on him by a decade in the Armed Forces.
