If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission. For our affiliate policy, click here.
Prince Harry opened up about how he dealt with his mother, Princess Diana’s, tragic death over two decades ago. In his new memoir Spare, the 38-year-old activist, who was only 12 at the time of his mother’s fatal car crash, revealed that he believed Diana had faked her own death to escape her troubled life, according to excerpts obtained by Page Six. The Duke of Sussex said he came up with the theory moments after he received the horrifying news of her death at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where he was visiting with his grandparents, the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, per the outlet.
“With nothing to do but roam the castle and talk to myself, a suspicion took hold, which then became a firm belief. This was all a trick,” Harry wrote, per the news source. “And for once the trick wasn’t being played by the people around me, or the press, but by Mummy. Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.”
Only 36 at the time, Princess Diana died from injuries sustained after her limousine crashed into the walls of the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997. Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and her chauffer, Henri Paul, also died from the accident. The only survivor was Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones. While there was initial suspicion on the paparazzi having a hand in the car accident, it was later confirmed Paul was driving under the influence, per The Washington Post.
In the memoir, Harry also writes that he and his brother Prince William would later drive themselves through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel to retrace their mother’s last moments, per Page Six. They also wanted to experience the “bump” in the road that allegedly sent Diana’s car off course. “We barely felt it.” Harry wrote. “I’d always imagined the tunnel as some treacherous passageway, inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple, no-frills tunnel. No reason anyone should ever die inside it.”