Prince Harry has revealed that his older brother Prince William was convinced their mother, Princess Diana, was alive and said both brothers believed she would one day get in touch with their sons and take them with her.
According to Harry, 38, he and William, 40, “talked about the idea that their mother hadn’t died in the 1997 car crash in Paris that saved her life, but had instead decided to “go away for a while” – with the Duke of Sussex said they believed it was “all part of a plan”.
“For a long time I just refused to accept that she… she was gone,” he told 60 Minutes host Anderson Cooper in a explosive new interview.
“Um, part of it, you know, she would never do that to us, but also part of it, maybe it’s all part of a plan.
‘[I believed she had disappeared] for a while and then she would call us and we would go to her, yes.’
Prince Harry has revealed that both he and his brother William refused to accept that their mother Princess Diana was dead – instead believing that she had simply “disappeared”.
According to Harry, 38, he and his brother discussed the idea that their mother’s death had been staged as part of a larger “plan”, with both believing that she would one day return to them
Harry – who also wrote about it in his bombastic new memoir Spare – added to Cooper that his brother “had similar thoughts,” saying, “William and I have talked about it too. He had similar thoughts.’
He admitted he kept that belief alive for “many, many years,” adding that he had “huge hopes” that his mother would one day return to be with her children – until he finally demanded that he be granted access to the police report of her death, which included vivid images of the scene of the accident.
According to Harry, he wanted to see these pictures because they provided “proof” that she was really gone.
“Proof she was in the car,” he said to Cooper when asked why he asked to see the report. ‘Proof she was hurt. And proof that the very paparazzi who chased her into the tunnel also took photos – photos of her lying half dead in the back seat of the car.”
In his explosive new book Spare, accidentally published in Spain a few days ahead of its scheduled January 10 release date, Harry writes at length about his struggle to cope with the death of his mother – and admits within its pages that he only ever been able to cry over loss once: her funeral.
In his explosive new book, Spare, Harry reveals that he demanded to see the police report on his mother’s fatal car accident, which included images of her wrecked vehicle
The Duke (seen at his mother’s funeral) said he wanted to see the photos because he needed “proof” that Diana was really dead
Speaking to Cooper, Harry continued to talk about the “guilt” he felt about his inability to show emotion or shed a tear – and told the 60 Minutes host that he used to watch videos of his mother and reminisce about she’ve been thinking try try and cry.
“There was this weight on my chest that I felt for so many years that I could never cry,” he said.
“So I was constantly trying to find a way to cry, but … by even sitting on my sofa and going through as many memories of my mother as I could muster. And sometimes I watched videos online.’
Harry struggled with his grief for years – and says it wasn’t until he started seeking therapy and experimenting with psychedelic drugs that he really came to terms with his mother’s death.
The Duke of Sussex told Cooper that psychedelics like ayahuasca and magic mushrooms were his “medicine” after his mother’s major “loss” in 1997, and said that using psychedelics as he got older ultimately “eliminated the idea.” that he had to be sad to prove that he “missed” his mother.
“I would never recommend people to do this in their spare time,” he said.
“But if you do it with the right people, if you’re going through a lot of loss or grief or trauma, then those things have a way of working like medicine.
“For me they removed the windshield, the windshield, the misery of loss. They dispelled this idea I had in my head that… I had to cry to prove to my mom that I missed her. Actually, she just wanted me to be happy.”