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Twenty-two years after Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris, Prince Harry has described her death as a “festering wound”. During an incredibly open interview that was filmed in Africa for a special that will screen on ITV in the UK on Sunday, Harry was asked by reporter Tom Bradby, “Do you feel at peace in a way yet or is it still a sort of wound that festers?’”
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Harry said, ‘I think probably a wound that festers. I think being part of this family, in this role, in this job, every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash it takes me straight back, so in that respect it’s the worst reminder of her life as opposed to the best.’
Harry is of course referring to the paparazzi who hounded Diana for most of her life and who were chasing her at the time of the accident in Paris.
Fiercely determined to avoid Meghan suffering the same fate, he has taken legal action against the British tabloids that published a private letter that the Duchess sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, and who have made Meghan the subject of countless disparaging articles since she began dating Harry.
In a voiceover promoting the ITV special An African Journey, Bradby says, “later in the program I was to speak to Meghan too about the difficulties of living life in the spotlight.”
“His [Prince Harry] great fear now is that his wife is subject to the same pressures as his mother was.”
Bradby followed the couple around Africa on their ten-day tour with their five-month old son Archie last month.
Harry retraced many of the steps taken by his mother 22 years earlier, including visiting Huambo in Angola where Diana did work with minefield charity HALO.
“Ever since I came to this continent as a young boy, trying to cope with something I can never possibly describe, Africa has held me in an embrace that I will never forget, and I feel incredibly fortunate for that,” Harry said.
“It’s been quite emotional retracing my mother’s steps, 22 years on,” said Harry at Huambo, where he deactivated a mine. “Let’s finish what was started.”
The Duke and Duchess have been stepping up their charity work in the past few months as they grow accustomed to life as new parents.
They’ve been vocal in campaigns for mental health, equality for young women and girls, and most recently attended the WellChild Awards in London, supporting children with serious illness. Speaking at the awards as a patron, Harry said, “Last year when my wife and I attended we knew we were expecting our first child – no one else did at the time, but we did – and I remember squeezing Meghan’s hand so tightly during the awards, both of us thinking what it would be like to be parents one day, and more so, what it would be like to do everything we could to protect and help our child should they be born with immediate challenges or become unwell over time. And now, as parents, being here and speaking to all of you pulls at my heartstrings in a way I could have never understood until I had a child of my own.”
