Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has talked about the guilt and grief he felt as a child after the death of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, in 1997. In new interview footage ahead of the release of his memoir 'Spare', Prince Harry recalled how he and Prince William were unable to display emotion while meeting mourners in public, BBC reported. He revealed that he cried only once after his mother died and said he feels ''guilty'' for not weeping publicly. Harry was aged 12 and William 15 when Diana died in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Harry told ITV's Tom Brady, "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."
The Duke of Sussex further said that he has looked back over footage from the time of Diana's death.
"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. 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," he added.
Prince Harry's memoir 'Spare' officially goes on sale on January 10 but much of its contents have already been leaked in British and US media. The book reveals several bombshell claims from the Duke of Sussex surrounding his upbringing and relationship with his family.
In the book, referring to Diana's death, Harry said he thinks that he is unable to cry in public because of his family's preference for not showing emotion.
According to The Telegraph, Harry wrote, "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 learned too well, had absorbed too thoroughly the family maxim that crying was never an option - never."
Recently, People magazine published an exclusive excerpt from the memoir in which the royal relived his mother Princess Diana's final moments before her death. According to the news outlet, while attending the 2007 Rugby World Cup semifinal in Paris, a then 23-year-old Harry drove through the same tunnel where his mother died 10 years prior.
Among the other disclosures in 'Spare' are Prince Harry's claim that he was physically assaulted by his brother, information about drug use, and a claim that he killed 25 Taliban militants while fighting in Afghanistan.
