'It was one of the hardest things I've ever done': William on Diana's funeral
21.06.2022 - 11:59
/ ok.co.uk
As his mother’s coffin lay on a gun carriage, draped in the Royal Standard and white lilies, a teenage Prince William bowed his head in deep mourning. But while he could easily have broken down during the funeral for the late Princess Diana, the 15-year-old held back the tears, giving younger brother Harry extra strength to cope with such a heartbreaking ordeal.
Diana’s tragic death on 31 August 1997 stunned the entire world, and united Britain in a period of unprecedented national mourning. She was just 36 when she and partner Dodi Al- Fayed, 42, and their driver Henry Paul, 41, died in a car crash in the Alma tunnel in Paris.
Her funeral was held a week later on 6 September, and William recalled in an interview 20 years later: “It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But if I had been in floods of tears the entire way round how would that have looked?” Speaking to GQ, he added: “I am a very private person, and it was not easy.There was a lot of noise, a lot of crying, a lot of wailing, people were throwing stuff, people were fainting.” Diana’s death marked the end of childhood for both William and Harry, who was just 12 at the time.
As her former butler Paul Burrell, 63, once said: “In many ways they were adults before they should have been. Because of the trauma they been through in their lifetime, they grew up very quickly.” For all the latest on the royals, sign up to OK!'s Royals newsletter.The pressure on them was already intense before they lost their mother, as they had been struggling with life in the spotlight, and were also caught between two warring parents.