Prince Harry was just 12 when his mother Princess Diana died in August 1997. Understandably, the devastating news led to some heartbreaking questions.
A Channel 5 documentary suggests the royal family tried to carry on as normal for the sake of the young princes, who were on holiday with Prince Charles in Balmoral at the time of their mother's death. According to Diana: 7 Days That Shook The Windsors, which aired on Tuesday night, William and Harry even attended a church service just a day after their mother's passing, where no mention of Diana was made.
As author and royal biographer Tina Brown explains in the programme, things felt so normal that Harry wasn't sure if the news was true.
"Prince Harry actually asked his father 'is it true that mummy's dead?'" Brown revealed in the documentary. "The children could not understand why everything was as normal except for being told a couple of hours before their mother had died."
The documentary also claims the Queen was so worried about the princes hearing details of their mother's traumatic death, she asked for all the TVs and radios to be hidden.
Writer Ingrid Seward commented: "The first thing we saw of the boys was when they were going to church for Sunday service and people were saying 'how could they, these boys have just lost their mother, and they're going to church?'"
In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of Diana's death, the two princes have opened up about how they struggled with the loss of their mother.
In an interview released by Kensington Palace as part of their Heads Together campaign, Harry spoke about the "damaging" impact of shutting off his emotions. He is now urging others to seek help.
"We've never really talked about losing a mum at such a young age. And then when you speak to other people's families and little kids and stuff, you think, 'Wow, I don't want them to have to go through the same things," Harry said. "You want to help as much as you can and try and empower them to have that conversation, to be brave enough for themselves to talk about it at a young age rather than bottling it up [like I did] for far too long."
