Prince William opens up about how the Queen protected them following Diana's death
Prince William has described how the Queen tried to shield he and Prince Harry from the public hysteria following Princess Diana's death.
In a BBC documentary, Diana 7 Days, airing on Sunday, he says that his grandmother swiftly took the boys to Balmoral, going to great lengths to ensure they were unaware of the huge response.
"At the time, you know, my grandmother wanted to protect her two grandsons, and my father as well," William says. "Our grandmother deliberately removed the newspapers, and things like that, so there was nothing in the house at all. So we didn't know what was going on."
He said that her decision meant that the grieving children were given "the privacy to mourn, to collect our thoughts, and to just have that space away from everybody". At the time, the Queen's silence following the death of Diana was met with huge criticism.
William goes onto comment that his grandmother was unsure about when the time was right to allow the boys to grieve in public.
"She felt very torn between being the grandmother to William and Harry, and her Queen role," he says. "And I think she – everyone – was surprised and taken aback by the scale of what happened and the nature of how quickly it all happened."
In the same documentary, Prince Harry praised his father for the handling of their mother's passing.
"One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is tell your children that your other parent has died. How you deal with that, I don't know," says Harry. "But 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 he was going through the same grieving process as well."
The pair also describe the difficulties that came with walking behind their mother's coffin on the day of her funeral. William says he dealt with it by putting his head down and "hid behind my fringe".
"It wasn't an easy decision," says William. It was a collective family decision. "It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It was a very long and lonely walk."
Harry, who has previously asserted that no child should have to walk in their mother's funeral procession "under any circumstance", said that he was glad to have had a role on the day.
"I think it was a group decision. But before I knew it I found myself with a suit on, with a black tie and white shirt, and I was part of it," he recalls. "Generally, I don't have an opinion on whether that was right or wrong. I'm glad I was part of it. Looking back on it now, I'm very glad I was part of it."
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