The heartbreaking moment Prince Harry learned of his mother’s death has been recreated by The Crown.
Who plays King Charles in The Crown?
The new series shows Dominic West who plays Prince Charles breaking the news to Prince Harry that his mother has died, by walking into his room to wake him up, saying: ‘Morning darling.’
Charles tells his son: ‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to be very brave’
‘Tears in his eyes’
William appears at the end of the bed and the camera pans to a close up of Harry’s face, looking shocked with tears in his eyes.
Prince William is seen standing at the foot of his brother’s bed, although it’s understood that in reality the boys were told separately.
Harry described being alone in his bedroom at Balmoral in his memoir Spare when Prince Charles relayed the news.
How Prince Charles broke Diana’s death to Harry
In the book he wrote about how his father, who was then the Prince of Wales, sat him down on a bed before breaking the news.
When and where the accident happened
He said Prince Charles called him ‘my dear son’ before telling him his mother was unlikely to survive head injuries sustained in the crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
He painted the picture of an emotionally-distant father, saying that Charles was ‘not good at expressing his emotions’.
He wrote: ‘What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.’
In the book, the Duke recalled asking to go and visit his mother while she was in the hospital.
However, he says his father explained she ‘hasn’t recovered any more’, before saying he stayed in his room on his own until the following morning.
Does Prince Harry watch The Crown?
He recalled that he and his brother William were forbidden from watching the TV so they didn’t see news of the car crash.
He said for a time he believed Diana had faked her own death and she was ‘running away’ to escape her ‘miserable’ life.
The Duke said his 13-year-old self had wondered if it was a ‘trick’, writing in the book: ‘Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.’
He later admitted this was not the case, but said he returned to the theory as a source of comfort.
It comes amid reports the Prince will have a ‘sensitivity viewer’ watch the new series to ‘save him’ from traumatic content, an insider has claimed.
The first four episodes of the final season will show a dramatised version of the lead-up to and the aftermath of Diana‘s death, including the Princess of Wales’s last meeting with her sons.
A source told Page Six: ‘Due to the sensitive nature of content in upcoming episodes of ‘‘The Crown,’’ Prince Harry has understandably decided not to view this season.’
