As Prince Harry continues to make shocking allegations about the royal family, his past and his parents, Prince William has remained dignified as well as private – that is, until now.
WATCH Prince Harry and Prince William unveil the new Princess Diana statue on her 60th birthday
During his appearance on mental health docuseries The Me You Can’t See, which he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he abused drugs and alcohol to numb the pain following the death of his mother Princess Diana on August 31, 1997.
“I slowly became aware that, OK, I wasn’t drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night. And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something,” the prince, 36, explained.
Speaking about Diana’s sudden death, Harry admitted he was so angry about what happened to her, and the injustice of it all.
“The same people who chased her through that tunnel photographed her dying on the back seat of the car,” Prince Harry said.
He then went on to reveal what is was actually like to walk behind her coffin.
“I was outside of my body and just walking along, doing what was expected of me. Showing one tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing. I thought, ‘This is my mum. You never even met her’,” the prince recalled.
While it’s incredibly hard not to feel any sympathy for Harry – who admitted to suffering severe anxiety and panic attacks after the Princess of Wales’s passing – royal experts believe William’s own grief has been overshadowed by the focus on Harry and Meghan’s “self-pity”.
“He lost his mother as well and has the added burden of being a future king,” royal author and expert Phil Dampier tells Royals Monthly.
“William has said that he didn’t want Diana’s death to destroy him, and so he made a conscious effort to cope and get on with his life.”
Phil adds that William, 38, can’t fathom why his brother – with whom he was once so close and shares so many fond memories – continues to publicly ridicule those who love him most.
“William just wishes his brother would put a sock in it,” Phil says. “He must find it hard to understand why Harry keeps bashing his own blood family.”
Royal fans largely seem to agree and be in his camp.
“What about William? Hasn’t he been hurting just as much? But doesn’t behave like his brother,” one royalist said of the divide.
Meanwhile, just days after Prince Harry accused his family of showing “total neglect” for his mental health and claimed his father Prince Charles made him “suffer”,
William – who once described the pain he felt on learning of Diana’s death as “like no other” – used the opportunity of a tour of Scotland to open up about how he coped with the life-changing loss.
“Scotland is the source of some of my happiest memories, but also my saddest. I was at Balmoral when I was told my mother had died,” the future king said in a candid and moving speech.
“Still in shock, I found sanctuary in the service at Crathie Kirk that very morning. And in the dark days of grief that followed, I found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors. As a result, the connection I feel to Scotland will forever run deep.”
William’s heartbreaking confession came after he made the unprecedented move of filming a statement after an inquiry into the 1995 TV interview with Princess Diana found the BBC covered up “deceitful behaviour” used by journalist Martin Bashir, and “fell short of high standards of integrity and transparency”.
“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said,” the father-of-three said.
“The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.
“It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.
“It is my firm view that this Panorama program holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again.”
WATCH Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ pre-wedding interview
Speaking to Royals Monthly, Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton says the late Princess was “scared half to death” by the methods used to obtain the historic interview.
“He deceived her, her brother (Earl Spencer), and the BBC. He scared her half to death with his lurid claims,” the author maintains.
However, Andrew doesn’t agree with William’s calls to have the interview banned.
“Diana wanted to speak out, first of all talking to me for my biography, Diana, Her True Story, and later with Bashir,” Andrew says. “It is a piece of history and in context a fascinating insight into her life and mind.”
Andrew also disputes the claim the interview made the marriage worse.
“It prompted the Queen to step in and urge them to divorce,” he claims. “The War of the Waleses was only damaging the monarchy. Once the dust settled the divorce enabled them to rebuild their lives.”
As for Harry, Andrew says he’s behaving like his mum: “He’s reckless, wears his heart on his sleeve, [and is] brave and at times foolhardy.”
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