Prince Harry shared that in his 2023 memoir, he
transmuted his mother Princess Diana’s final moments and regrets it.
Princess Diana of Wales passed away on 31 August 1997 in the early hours of the morning from injuries sustained in a car accident, while driving through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France.
Survived by her two children, Prince William and Prince Harry, Diana’s passing triggered international devastation as ‘the people’s princess’ was cherished by many.
Harry was only 12 years old when his mother passed away, with William being 15.
In the car was Diana’s partner Dodi Fayed, driver Henri Paul and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. Everyone except Rees-Jones passed away, although he did keep serious injuries and, of course, has to live with the fate of that terrible day.
Over the years, both William and Harry have shared about their mother’s passing, but according to Harry’s 2023 memoir Spare, he went one step further to try and get some
termination from the disastrous experience.
In 2007, the prince visited Paris for the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final when he decided to try and reveal his mother’s final moments.
23 years old at the time, Prince Harry explains: “The World Cup provided me with a driver, and on my first night in the City of Light I asked him if he knew the tunnel where my mother…”
“I watched his eyes in the rearview, growing large. The tunnel is called Pont de l’Alma, I told him. Yes, yes. He knew it.”
“The exact speed Mummy’s car had supposedly been driving, according to police, at the time of the crash.
“Not 120 miles per hour, as the press originally reported.”
Spare adds: “Off we went, weaving through traffic, cruising past the Ritz, where Mummy had her last meal, with her boyfriend, that August night.
“Then we came to the mouth of the tunnel. We zipped ahead, went over the lip at the tunnel’s entrance, the bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course. But the lip was nothing. We barely felt it.”
Speaking of his reaction, he shared: “I leaned forward, watched the light change to a kind of water orange, watched the concrete pillars flicker past. I counted them, counted my heartbeats, and in a few seconds we emerged from the other side.
“Is that all of it? It’s…nothing. Just a straight tunnel.
“[I] always imagined the tunnel as some treacherous passageway, inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple, no-frills tunnel.”
Although he managed to reach closure from the experience, he also felt a lot of pains.
“She’s d3ad, I thought: ‘My God, she’s really gone for good.’
“I got the closure I was pretending to seek. I got it in spades. And now I’d never be able to get rid of it. I’d thought driving the tunnel would bring an end, or brief cessation, to the pain, the decade of unrelenting pain.
“Instead it brought on the start of Pain, Part Deux.”
