In his much-anticipated autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry describes how his grief at the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, led him to seek help from a woman who “claimed to have ‘powers'” and was able to be, to pass on a message.
“You live the life she couldn’t,” says Harry, the woman told him. “You’re living the life she wanted for you.”
Diana died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 when Harry was 12 years old.
Harry, now 38, will be releasing Spare next week. The Guardian obtained a copy amid reports of extremely tight security surrounding the book’s publication.
The description of the visit to the woman — about which Harry doesn’t use words like “psychic” or “medium” — comes late in the 400-page book, amid the prince’s account of his marriage to Meghan Markle, an American actress, and troubled ones Relations with the royal family, including being physically assaulted by his brother Prince William.
Harry writes about his mother and his grief in his book, at one point describing repeated trips through the tunnel in Paris where she died to understand what happened.
His account of what he says was a conversation with his dead mother is brief. Harry, who now lives in Los Angeles, does not say where or when the meeting took place. He does not name the woman involved.
The prince says he “saw the high percentage of humbuggery’s opportunity” but went out to meet the woman after being recommended by trusted friends.
“As soon as we sat down,” he writes, “I felt an energy around her.”
The prince says the woman told him she also senses an energy around him, saying, “Your mother is with you.”
Harry replied, “I know. I’ve felt that lately.”
The woman, he writes, told him his mother was with him “right now.” Harry says his throat grew warm and his eyes watered.
The woman told Harry his mother knew he was “looking for clarity” and “sensed your confusion” and that he had “so many questions” and said the answers would come in good time.
The prince also says the woman told him Diana said, ‘You live the life she couldn’t. You live the life she wanted for you.”
Harry, who also describes in his book endless run-ins with the press on touring London clubs and visiting Africa, Europe and Hollywood and admits regular drinking and drug use, says he wanted to believe the woman but needed “proof” . A sign. Anything.”
One such sign offered by the woman included a story about an ornament and a claim that his mother knew about it because “she was there”.
At the beginning of the book, Harry recounts how a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, was accidentally smashed by his son Archie.
The woman, he writes, reiterated that his mother was there when the incident happened, saying: “Your mother says… something about a bauble? From a mother? Or a grandma? It fell? Broke?”
Harry said, “Archie was trying to fix it.”
The woman said, “Your mom says she giggled a bit about that.”
After the Guardian published the first details of Spare on Wednesday night, the book briefly appeared on sale in Spain, leading to other news outlets getting copies.