PRINCE HARRY RECALLS REACTING TO PRINCESS DIANA'S DEATH

“IT WAS A LOT OF BURIED EMOTION.”
The royal reflects on his mother’s passing 19 years later.

Prince Harry still remembers how he struggled to accept his mother’s death 19 years ago. The royal was only 12 years old when Princess Diana died in a fatal car accident in 1997—as a preteen, he understandably had trouble coming to terms with the tragedy.
“I’d never really dealt with what had actually happened,” the 32-year-old said in a new documentary, Prince Harry in Africa. “There was a lot of buried emotion and, for a huge part of my life, I just didn’t even want to think about it.”
The documentary follows the Prince during his trip to Lesotho, a country in southern Africa where he started his charity, Sentebale; but he also delves into his relationship with his late mom and how he recovered from her loss.
“I now view life very differently from what it used to be,” Harry later added. “I used to bury my head in the sand, and let everything around you tear you to pieces.”
Now, Harry finds purpose in following in his mother’s footsteps and carrying on her humanitarian work. Princess Diana was known for AIDS activism, according to Today, and her son similarly raises awareness on the epidemic. During his recent trip to the Caribbean, he got tested for HIV (with his new buddy Rihanna) in honor of World AIDS Day.

By Harper’s Bazaar