The 35-year-old Royal was just 15-years-old at the time of his mother’s funeral, and explained how he could not understand why people who had not even met Diana were shaken by her death.
In a new BBC documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, William told how he has come to realise how much a beacon of hope his mother really was to the public.
William said: “It was a very alien environment. I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to cry as loud as they did and show such emotion as they did when they didn’t really know our mother.
“I did feel a bit protective at times about that. I was like, ‘Well, you don’t even know… you didn’t even know her, why and how are you so upset?’
“But now looking back over the last few years I’ve learnt to understand what it was that she gave the world and what she gave a lot of people.”
He continued: “Back in the 90s there weren’t many public figures doing what she did and so she was this ray of light in a fairly grey world.”
Prince Harry added: “Hearing people screaming in the crowds. I think the broadcast news even today still talks about the silence.
“Of course there was a huge amount of silence, but what I remember is every 50 yards or whatever, certain people in the crowd just unable to contain their emotion. That was a big thing.”
Harry also revealed how he feels a need to “fill the holes” left following Diana’s passing.
He said: “All I want to do is try and fill the holes that my mother has left, and between myself and William and everybody else that’s in those privileged positions, to try and make a difference.
“That’s what it’s about for us, trying to make a difference.”
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
