'Don’t cry now': Emotional Prince William tells woman Queen's procession brought back memories of Diana's funeral
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Prince William opened up on joining the solemn procession as his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II made her final journey from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, September 14, saying it reminded him of his mother, Princess Diana's funeral.
According to Express UK, William, now the Prince of Wales, said to one of the mourners that the moment had been "very difficult" and reminded him of the ceremony for Princess Diana, who passed away in 1997 in a car crash. The royal family is going through a difficult time after the Queen died on September 8 in Balmoral.
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Royal correspondent Richard Palmer tweeted about the incident. He wrote, "Prince William told a woman sympathizing with him at Sandringham that the procession yesterday had been 'very difficult' and had reminded him of walking behind his mother’s coffin. He told another woman: 'don’t cry now, you’ll start me.' "
Prince William told a woman sympathising with him at Sandringham that the procession yesterday had been “very difficult” and had reminded him of walking behind his mother’s coffin. He told another woman: “Don’t cry now, you’ll start me.”
— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) September 15, 2022
As the Queen's coffin left Buckingham Palace before her lying in state, Prince William and Prince Harry marched together behind their father, King Charles III, to show their unity during the time of grief. The royal family traveled on foot with their grandmother to Westminster Hall, where hundreds of thousands of mourners are anticipated to pay their respects until her funeral on September 19.
The scenes were reminiscent of when William and his brother Harry had walked behind the coffin of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales during her funeral in 1997, aged 15 and 13.
Both brothers have spoken about dealing with their mother's death in the past. William said in 2017 that the shock of Diana's death is still present within him. He said in a TV program, "You never get over it. It's such an unbelievably big moment in your life that it never leaves you. You just learn to deal with it."
The Duke of Sussex said in a 2021 TV documentary series, "It was like I was outside my body, just walking along, doing what was expected of me, showing one tenth of the emotion that everyone was showing."
William and Harry, together with their respective spouses Kate and Meghan, unexpectedly set aside their differences to perform the walkabout outside Windsor Castle to inspect the floral tributes for the Queen on Saturday, September 10.
The reunion of the brothers reportedly came after newly-crowned King Charles III ordered his sons to keep their feud aside and reunite for the sake of their late grandmother.