Prince Harry says he locked away his emotions when Diana died

Heartbreaking

prince harry
(Image credit: Rex Features (Shutterstock))

Heartbreaking

It’s been almost twenty years since Princess Diana died in a tragic car crash in Paris, and in the wake of the anniversary, Prince William and Prince Harry have been opening up about their mother’s death.

They recently revealed in a BBC1 documentary, Diana, that they thought they’d let her down, and now Prince Harry has opened up about how he felt at the time.

Speaking to CTV News, Harry admitted that after his mum died when he was just twelve, he bottled up his feelings.

‘You know, I lost my mum when I was 12, so emotions were locked away very, very early on,’ he said.

He added his military training meant he suppressed feelings even further, ‘If you have emotion on the battlefield when you're having to make pretty tough decisions or when you're having to help your buddies or whether you're trying to hide or run away, you can't let emotion take control of you. You have to let training kick in.’

It wasn’t until his 20s that he underwent counselling, after not letting anything in led to ‘total chaos’ and he was ‘very close to a complete breakdown’.

Harry also sweetly praised his mum for all the work she’d achieved in her lifetime, saying people should ’take their hats off to her because she drew a spotlight to the causes and the issues that no one wanted to talk about.’

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.