Prince Harry was just 12 years old when his mother, Princess Diana, tragically died – and he has opened up about the moment he was told the heartbreaking news in his memoir, Spare

Prince Harry has heartbreakingly confessed that he didn’t shed a tear when he was informed of his mother, Princess Diana’s tragic passing.

The People’s Princess, as she was affectionately known, tragically lost her life in a horrifying car crash in Paris back in August 1997. The accident occurred in the early hours of August 31, and Diana was pronounced dead around 4am.

Her death was confirmed by then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

In his memoir titled ‘Spare’, Harry vividly recalls the moment he and his older brother Prince William were told about their mother’s sudden demise while they were at the Royal residence in Balmoral. Their father, Prince Charles, had the difficult task of breaking the news to them, reports the Mirror.

However, Harry shockingly admitted that he didn’t cry when his father broke the news of Diana’s death to him. He felt numb as Charles, who struggled to display emotions, failed to hug him or William.

“What I do remember with startling clarity is that I didn’t cry. Not one tear. Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in such a crisis? But his hand did fall once more on my knee and he said: ‘Its going to be OK,'” Harry penned down in his memoir.

Diana was mourned by millions around the world (Image: Getty Images)

Reflecting on the devastating moment, Prince Harry disclosed that his father’s words to him were “so very untrue”. He recounted how Prince Charles had informed his older brother William first, who was only 15 at the time, about their mother Diana’s untimely passing, before coming to Harry with the tragic news.

Prince Harry shared vividly the anguish he felt as he lay in bed for seemingly endless hours following the revelation. He said after hearing of his mother’s death from Charles, he “didn’t get up, I didn’t bathe, didn’t pee,” and never sought the comfort of his elder sibling.

In a candid conversation last year, the Duke of Sussex opened up about how he and his brother William struggled to express their emotions publicly in the wake of their mothers passing. Speaking to Tom Bradby of ITV, he divulged that he wept during the burial but found it difficult to grieve openly thereafter.

“I cried once, at the burial, and you know I go into detail (in Spare) about how strange it was and how actually there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace,” he confided.

Prince Harry poignantly remembered the moments he and his brother spent amidst the crowds gathered outside Kensington Palace following Diana’s demise. During those interactions, he realised the dampness on the hands they shook came from people’s tears as they mourned.

Harry said: “There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother and there we were shaking people’s hands, smiling… And the wet hands that we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet, but it was all the tears that they were wiping away.”