Prince Harry Believed A Conspiracy Theory About Princess Diana
Prince Harry told Anderson Cooper that for well over a decade, he believed his mother might have faked her own death.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, recently revealed something that — even if you’re not the type to normally follow drama of Britain’s royal family — is absolutely heartbreaking. Over the weekend, 60 Minutes aired part of Anderson Cooper’s interview with the controversial prince who reveals that for over 10 years he believed his mother Princess Diana had faked her own death. He said it wasn’t until he was 23, when he visited the site of the fateful crash, that he finally accepted his mother was gone.
Prince Harry told Anderson Cooper that not only did he not believe that his mother was truly dead but that his older brother, Prince William, had similar doubts. He told Cooper that while he knew his mother would “never do this to us,” he couldn’t help but humor the notion that “it was all part of a plan.”
In Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, due to hit shelves on Tuesday, the royal writes during the years he believed that his mother was somehow still alive, his first thought upon waking in the morning was often “maybe this is the day.” The day he waited for was one in which Princess Diana would reveal herself to still be alive, and she would send for Harry and William to join her in hiding.
The Duke of Sussex was so convinced of the conspiracy that when he was 20 he requested to see all the police reports documenting his mother’s death; thankfully his private secretary stopped him from seeing the most gruesome of the photos. Asked what he was looking for in the files, Prince Harry responded:
“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 — photographs of her lying half dead on the back seat of the car.”
-Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, on 60 Minutes
Prince Harry was 12 when Princess Diana died — along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul — in a Paris car crash while trying to avoid paparazzi. But he told Andersoon Cooper that it took his own trip to Paris when he was 23 to finally accept his mother’s death. He had his driver take the same route in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel that marked his mother’s final moments.
“I wanted to see whether it was possible driving at the speed that Henri Paul was driving that you could lose control of a car and plow into a pillar killing almost everybody in that car. I need to take this journey. I need to ride the same route.”
-Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, on 60 Minutes
While the son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, came to terms with his mother’s passing, he remains skeptical about what was presented to him and his brother as the truth of the events. Still, he said he’s not interested in requesting the investigation into her death be re-opened.
“Do I need any more than I already know?” Prince Harry mused. “No. I don’t think it would change much.”
