Today marks 27 years since the tragic death of Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
The shocking news of her death affected people all over the world, and even now, fans continue to remember her.
Many visitors gathered outside Kensington Palace, Diana’s former home, to lay flowers and view photos of the ‘People’s Princess.’ A large banner with pictures of Diana reads, “Her work continues through her loving sons Prince William and Prince Harry.”
Princess Diana died in the car crash along with her partner, Dodi Fayed. At the time, her sons, Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, 12, were with their father, Prince Charles, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. It was Charles who broke the sad news to them.
In a BBC documentary titled “Diana, 7 Days,” Prince Harry talked about that painful moment.
“One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died. How you deal with that?
“I don’t know, but you know, 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,” he said.
Prince William also shared his feelings, saying, “I remember just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy. You feel very, very confused, and you keep asking yourself, ‘Why me?’ All the time, ‘Why? What have I done? Why? Why has this happened to us?'”
Their last contact with their mother was a short phone call, something they did every day since their parents separated.
Prince Harry, in the 2017 HBO documentary “Diana, Our Mother,” said, “I can’t really, necessarily, remember what I said, and If I’d known that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother – the things I would have said to her.”
Less than a week after her death, Diana was laid to rest in a public funeral watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide.
Princes William and Harry, along with Prince Charles, Diana’s brother Earl Spencer, and Prince Philip, walked behind her coffin.
Reflecting on that day, Prince Harry said, “My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances.”
