When, on 31 August 1997, it was announced that Diana, Princess of Wales had been killed in a car accident, the whole of Britain was stunned.
Suddenly, without warning, the nation’s sweetheart had been taken from our grasp.
But if Diana’s untimely death came as a shock to the public, imagine what it must’ve felt like to her young sons, William and Harry.
And now, the two princes have revealed their despair at not having had the chance to say the things they wanted to their mum.
In a documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in Paris, William and Harry bare their souls on the impact the tragedy had on them.
William was just 15 years old when the news broke, while Harry was 12.
At that age, most kids are still building relationships with their parents, sharing their innermost feelings.
But that opportunity was cruelly snatched away from the two brothers, and they confess that that’s been the hardest thing to deal with in the ensuing years.
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The last time they spoke to their mother was when she phoned them at Balmoral, where the boys were enjoying a break.
She died the following day.
“I can’t really remember what I said,” recalls Harry, now 32, in Diana, Our Mother: Her Life And Legacy.
“But all I do remember is, probably, you know, regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.
“And if I’d known that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother, the things that I would’ve said to her…
“Looking back on it now, it’s incredibly hard. I have to sort of deal with that for the rest of my life.”
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As for William, now 35, he confesses that the phone call was so short because he and Harry were too busy having fun – and that’s something he now feels guilty about.
“Harry and I were running about, playing with our cousins and having a very good time,” he says.
“I think Harry and I were just in a desperate rush to say goodbye, see you later and we’re going to go off.
“If I’d known now, obviously, what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have been so blasé about it and everything else. But, erm, that call sticks in my mind quite, quite heavily.”
Diana, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul, were killed when their car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
She was just 36 years old.