The Duke of Sussex was just 12 years old when his mother, Diana, was killed in an automobile accident in a Paris tunnel. In “Spare,” he explains that he has spent the decades afterwards trying to figure out what really happened on that terrible night, only to be talked out of reopening the investigation into the princess’ death.
He also mentions how he and his brother, Prince William, drove through the Pont de l’Alma — the location of Diana’s crash — to relive their mother’s dying moments.
When Diana died, the young princes were at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with their grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. “With nothing to do but tour the castle and talk to myself, a hunch took hold, which soon became a definite belief,” Harry writes. It was all a ruse.
“And, for once, the trick wasn’t being played by those around me or the press, but by Mummy. Her life has been a living hell; she has been pursued, harassed, lied about, and lied to. So she created an accident as a distraction and fled.”
Diana was 36 years old when she died. Her automobile crashed into the Pont de l’Alma’s walls, killing her then-boyfriend Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul. Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana’s bodyguard, was the lone survivor.
»Prince Harry reveals he once believed Diana faked her own death to escape publicity«