It’s been 20 years since Prince William and Prince Harry lost their mum, Princess Diana, in a Paris car crash on August 31st.
William, who was 15 at the time, and Harry, who was 11, then had to grieve their mother with the entire world watching, including walking behind the coffin at her funeral, which was broadcast worldwide just days after her death.
Now, 20 years on, Prince William and Prince Harry paid tribute to their beloved mother, on the eve of the anniversary of her death, by placing flowers at the front gates of Kensington Palace, Diana’s former home.
While there, William and Harry accepted bunches of flowers from fans and placed them in front of the many photos of Diana.
Earlier in the day, the princes were joined by the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, for a tour of the White Garden, which has been planted in the Princess’s memory.
In the lead up to today’s anniversary, the princes have been speaking candidly about the grief they felt over losing their mum.
“[I] refused to accept it. There was no sudden outpour of grief. I don’t think anybody in that position at that age would be able to understand the concept of what that actually means, going forward,” Prince William recalled in BC1’s new documentary, Diana, 7 Days.
“I remember feeling completely numb, disoriented, dizzy – and you feel very very confused,” he continued. “And you keep asking yourself, ‘Why me?’ the whole time. ‘Why? What have I done, why has this happened to us?’”
Prince Harry opened up earlier this year about his mental health in the year’s that followed.
“My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?” he said to the Daily Telegraph.
“(I thought) it’s only going to make you sad, it’s not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like ‘right, don’t ever let your emotions be part of anything.'”
He added, “And then [I] started to have a few conversations and actually all of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, there is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with.”
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