'All part of a plan': Prince Harry believed 'for years' that Diana staged her death to escape the paparazzi
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Prince Harry has revealed that for years he and his brother, Prince William believed their mother, Princess Diana, faked her own death to escape the press. The Duke of Sussex opened up about losing his mother, the late Princess of Wales, when he was only 12 years old in an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS' '60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday, January 8. The CNN reporter brought up an extract from Prince Harry's upcoming book, ‘Spare,’ during their on-camera discussion, in which the prince confesses to thinking his mother had staged her demise to avoid the media.
Cooper was informed by Harry that he had thought "for a long time" that Princess Diana had “decided to disappear for a time”. “I just refused to accept that she was gone. Part of, she would never do this to us but also part of, maybe this is all part of a plan,” he added. He continued, “[I was looking mainly for] proof that she was in the car. Proof that she was injured and proof that the very paparazzi that chased her into the tunnel were the ones that were taking photographs of her lying half dead in the back [of the car]. The pictures showed the reflection of a group of photographers taking photographs through the window and the reflection on the window was them.”
RELATED ARTICLES
'60 Minutes' viewers left baffled after Prince Harry BACKTRACKS on claims royal family is 'racist'
Harry also expressed his gratitude to his personal secretary and advisor for preventing him from viewing the most horrible pictures from the accident. “All I saw was the back of my mom’s head slumped on the back seat. I will be eternally grateful to him for denying me the ability to inflict pain on myself by seeing that. Because that’s the kind of stuff that sticks in your mind forever,” he remarked. When Cooper questioned how long he thought she had faked her own death, Harry responded back saying, “Years. Many, many years. William and I talked about it as well. He had similar thoughts.”
On August 31, 1997, the late Princess of Wales died in a terrible car accident in Paris, France. The Duke of Sussex recalls passing through the Paris tunnel where Diana died at the same pace her car was moving before the collision in his autobiography, which is set to hit bookstores on January 10. Prince Harry also confessed to studying videos of Princess Diana in an effort to grieve. The duke admitted to Cooper that the only time he had shed tears following his mother's passing was when she was finally laid to rest. Meanwhile, The Duke of Sussex's open conversation with Cooper is just one of many in-depth sit-down interviews he has conducted in the run-up to the publication of his autobiography, ‘Spare.’