Prince Harry has been very open over the years about the effect that his mother's death had on his mental health. He was just 12 years old when Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris. The prince has previously revealed how he keeps his late mother close and how he is instilling her memory in his own children.
While he and Prince William have revealed a number of personal stories about Diana in the 25 years that have passed since her death, they have also spoken of their regrets at how their final interactions took place. The two young princes were on holiday in Balmoral with their father and other members of the Royal Family when they heard the news.
Prince Harry revealed in a 2017 documentary that he deeply regrets the last time he spoke to his mother as he was desperate to end the phone call so he could go and play outside.
In the documentary 'Diana, Our Mother', Princes William and Harry sat down to recall some of their memories of their mother and spoke about the last times they saw her.
Harry said: “I can’t really, necessarily, remember what I said. But all I do remember is probably, you know, regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.
"And if I’d known that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother – the things I would have said to her.”
William added: “I remember just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy. You feel very, very confused. And you keep asking yourself, ‘Why me?’ All the time, ‘Why? What have I done? Why? Why has this happened to us?’”
Love the royals? Sign up for the Mirror's daily newsletter to get all the latest news on the Queen, Charles, Kate, Wills, Meghan, Harry and the rest of The Firm. Click here to sign up .
Elsewhere in the documentary Harry reflected on Diana's funeral which took place in London on September 6. He said: “My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands watching me while millions more did on television.
“I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
William said: “There’s nothing like it in the world. There really isn’t. It’s like an earthquake has just run through the house and through your life and everything. Your mind is completely split. And it took me a while for it to actually sink in.”
In a separate documentary 'Diana, 7 days' to mark the 20th anniversary of her passing, Prince Harry praised his father's response in the days following the death.
Harry said of Prince Charles : “One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died. How you deal with that? I don’t know. But you know, he was there for us.
“He was the one out of two left, and he tried to do his best and to make sure that we were protected and looked after. But you know, he was going through the same grieving process as well.”
Prince Harry was previously very open about the struggles he faced after his mother's death when he co-created the mental health documentary series 'The Me You Can’t See' with Oprah Winfrey for Apple TV.
The series saw Harry tell Winfrey that the trauma of the loss caused him to suffer anxiety and severe panic attacks from ages 28 to 32.
Speaking to the camera, The Duke of Sussex revealed that the pain of his mother’s death led him to use alcohol and drugs to “mask” his emotions and to “feel less like I was feeling”.
He continued: “I was just all over the place mentally, every time I put a suit on and tie on … having to do the role, and go, ‘right, game face’, look in the mirror and say, ‘let’s go’. Before I even left the house I was pouring with sweat. I was in fight or flight mode.”
Diana's biographer Andrew Morton previously spoke to The Mirror's podcast, Pod Save the Queen, about Prince Harry and how he still involves his late mother in his life.
Morton said: "I think that Diana's influence has lasted longer than anybody thought because her torchbearers in life, William and Harry, have not forgotten her and have held concerts in her memory. Harry himself says that he never makes a decision without referring it to her in a spiritual sense.
"She marked a turning point in the way the Royal Family behaved and through her behaviour helped to modernise and make more human the Royal Family. So it wasn't big handbags, white gloves and standoffish. It was more touchy-feely than it had ever been in the past. So she made the Royal Family more relevant to modern times."
