Prince Harry has shared his sober response to a poignant move made in the wake of his mother’s tragic death in Paris.
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in the early hours of August 31, 1997, from head injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel.
Her partner Dodi Fayed and the driver Henri Paul were found dead inside the Mercedes W140 while Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor of the crash.
The then Princess of Wales’s death sparked an outpouring of public grief, with millions watching her televised funeral, during which a young Prince Harry and Prince William followed their mother’s coffin along a procession route lined with mourning members of the public.
Harry recalls a moving drive he made 10 years after his mother’s death while he was in Paris for the Rugby World Cup semi-final in 2007.
Details of the emotional journey have resurfaced ahead of the paperback version of Harry’s book, Spare, hitting the shelves in Britain on October 24.
In his bestselling memoir, the prince describes being driven through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at the same speed as the car which was carrying Diana on that fateful night.
He writes that the World Cup organisers had provided him with a driver who he asked on his first night in the city if he knew the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Harry describes the Irish driver’s eyes widening in the rear view mirror and says he was able to figure out he was thinking, “What the feck? I didn’t sign on for this”.
The Duke of Sussex goes on to recall telling the driver he wanted to go through the tunnel at 65mph – the speed at which the Mercedes was being driven.
He then remembers leaning forward in his seat as his car enters the tunnel, watching the light change to orange and concrete pillars flickering past.
Harry describes sitting back in his seat after emerging on the other side of the tunnel after a few seconds before uttering a six-word response.
The prince writes that he said quietly: “It’s… nothing. Just a straight tunnel.”
Diana’s absence from Harry’s life is a recurring feature of the Duke’s memoir, where he also describes feeling “some guilt” as he walked among the crowds of mourners who gathered outside Kensington Palace to leave flowers in the wake of her death.
He recalled how both he and William were unable to show emotion as they met devestated members of the public and that he could only cry once over his mother’s death.
In an interview with ITV ahead of the book’s publication, Harry said: “I cried once, at the burial, and… I go into some detail [in his book] about how strange it was.”
