Everyone was startled to learn of Princess Diana’s passing. Millions of people grieved the “People’s Princess,” whose funeral was viewed by the greatest television audience ever.A lot of folks thought they had lost a family member. However, for a few individuals, that was true.
When their mother died when they were young, Prince William and Prince Harry are famous for walking behind her coffin at her funeral. The brothers were at Balmoral when the accident occurred, and what transpired the following day was nothing short of a big shock.
William and Harry spoke with their mother the day before she was murdered in a horrific vehicle accident in Paris. During an interview, The Prince talked about their mother.
On August 31, 1997, at about 12.23 in the morning, Princess Diana’s car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. She drove herself and her boyfriend, the Egyptian-born film mogul Dodi Fayed, out of the Ritz Hotel, escorted by a bodyguard and driver. They were being pursued by paparazzi photographers when they crashed quickly in the Paris tunnel.
The driver of the automobile, Henri Paul, and Diana’s friend, Dodi Fayed, were found dead inside. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, fortunately survived. The beloved princess was given a lot of attention by the medical staff at the scene, but she went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance. Six minutes after two in the morning, Diana arrived at the hospital.
When Diana first arrived at the hospital, an X-ray was ordered, and the results revealed that she had suffered severe inside injuries. As a result, she received a blood transfusion immediately. After only fifteen minutes, Diana went into another cardiac arrest. The princess was operated upon, but the damage was too great. Medley Chief MonSef Dahman. Her heart would not beat once again.
MonSef Dahman was the one in charge of trying to keep Diana alive. In an interview, he recounted what had happened that evening.
He told the British news site, “The thought that you have lost an important person, for whom you cared personally, marks you for life.”
“We repeatedly attempted electric shocks and, as I had previously done in the emergency department, cardiac massage,” Dahman said.
Dahman and his medical team fought for Diana’s survival. But in the end, they had no power. He claimed that the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital was one of the best in France for these kinds of situations and that he was “happy and proud” to have saved those who were brought there.
Diana, on the other hand, felt hope at first. However, they ultimately failed to save her. Prince William and Prince Harry, the children of Princess Diana, remained in Paris with their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and their father, King Charles, while medical professionals fought to save their mother.
How William and Harry learned of Diana’s demise
Despite William and Harry being born two years apart, both boys had pleasant childhoods. Their mother recognized the importance of their future. She understood that they were different from other children, but she also realized that they should enjoy as typical a childhood as possible. Prince William and his spouse, Kate, would eventually incorporate it into their child-rearing.
The loss of Princess Diana obviously upset the royal family. Harry was expected to play a significant role in the monarchy, even though Diana and Charles had broken up less than a year earlier. William, the eldest son, was supposed to become King one day.
When the news initially broke, Harry, then 12 years old, and William, then 15 years old, were asleep. After the two princes regained consciousness, Queen Elizabeth II realized how important it was to protect them.
She ordered her attendants at Balmoral to let the little lads sleep in before ordering them to hide every TV and radio in the Castle. When they went to church the following morning, Her Majesty then banned anyone from discussing Diana’s passing.
In his book Spare, Harry stated that following Diana’s passing, his father “didn’t hug him.” Naturally, the two kids were shocked and heartbroken. In an interview for the documentary Diana, 7 Days, William said how the devastating news left him feeling “completely numb,” “disoriented,” and “dizzy.”
“You’re incredibly perplexed. And you can’t help but wonder, “Why me?” Why? I ask myself all the time. How did I get here? Why? Why are we experiencing this? stated William.
According to him, “There’s nothing like it in the world” in the film Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy. Actually, there isn’t. It feels as though everything in your life, even the house, has suddenly been rocked by an earthquake. You have two distinct minds. And it needed some time for it to truly register with me.
“It was really challenging to communicate.”
Family members tried to talk to William and Harry about what had happened. The two found it hard to come to terms with the death of their beloved mother.
According to him, “The family got together, and Harry and I tried to talk about it as best we could” (Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy). But at that age, it was really hard to express yourself or comprehend how you felt. It’s quite intricate.
September 6, 1997 was the day Princess Diana was laid to rest. Two-year-old William and Harry followed their mother’s casket in the cortege, a sight that an estimated 2.5 billion people saw throughout the funeral.
“I had to walk a long way behind my mother’s coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more watched on television,” Harry said to Newsweek after his mother’s death. “I don’t believe that any child should ever be asked to perform that task. I doubt that would occur in the present day.
Situated on a small island in Oval Lake, the Althorp mansion is where Princess Diana was put to rest. Of course, it was hard to continue. Nevertheless, they tried to maintain a cheerful demeanor and put up a brave front for the public.
William remarked, “You try to rebuild your life and come to terms with what’s happened gradually. I kept telling myself that my mother would not want me to be upset.” She wouldn’t want me to be depressed. This is not how she would want me to be. I also kept myself occupied, which has its advantages and disadvantages but helps you get through the initial shock phase.
Princess Diana was first and foremost concerned about her children, whether or not she was a princess. Diana tried her hardest to keep them safe, but she was concerned that she might lose them in the event that she and Charles got divorced.
Diana received a final phone call from William and Harry.
Author of Charles: The Man Who Will Be King (2007) and biographer Howard Hodgson asserts that Diana believed Queen Elizabeth and Charles wanted to keep her apart from her children.
Hodgson wrote, as cited by Express, “She was well aware that the Queen had the constitutional right and authority under common law to take control of both boys’ care and education.”
“Therefore, if Diana eventually burned all of her bridges with the Royal Family, she might end up being the boys’ guardian or even appoint one—this would most likely be their father.”
Hodgson continued, “It was never Queen Elizabeth’s intention to keep Diana apart from her sons.” Diana, however, thought that Charles and the Queen “had already hatched such a plot and were only waiting for the right moment to execute it.”
William, Harry, and Diana were always in communication, no matter where she was in the world or how close to her home. It was the same evening, August 30, 1997, when she called her children from Paris.
In the documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, William and Harry shared additional details of their final chat with their mother, though Harry insisted he couldn’t remember what they talked about.
But all I can recall is that I will always regret the briefness of the phone conversation. The now-estranged Duke of Sussex remarked, “The things I would have said to my mother if I had known that was the last time I was going to speak to her.”
“May I leave now?”
“When I look back on it now, it was really difficult. I will always be burdened by that: not realizing that it was the final time I would speak to my mother, and how different the outcome of that discussion would have been if I had the smallest suspicion that she would not survive that evening.
Prince William was able to recall the specifics of the call a little better. Nor will he ever forget the last, melancholy words his mother spoke to him.
“A call from Balmoral is the last thing I remember.” William recalled that Harry and I were playing with our cousins, racing around, and generally having a great time at the time. “I was in a tremendous hurry to say, ‘See you later, can I go off?’ with Harry. I wouldn’t have been quite so carefree about it if I had realized what was going to occur. That phone call is still very much in my memory.
Despite their mother’s horrific death in a vehicle accident, William and Harry managed to grow up to be decent men because to the support and affection of their family. They will continue, perhaps indefinitely, to honor their mother’s legacy.
On July 1, 2021, which would have been Diana’s 60th birthday, Prince William and Prince Harry witnessed the unveiling of a new bronze statue of their mother in Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden.
The brothers released a statement saying, “Today, on what would have been our Mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength, and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.”
“We hope this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy. We wish she were still with us every day.”
Peace be with you, Princess Diana. To commemorate her, please tell your friends and family about this article on Facebook!
