Prince Harry has described his last phone call with his mother, Princess Diana, as one of his biggest regrets. He spoke about it in an interview with GQ magazine, which focused on grief, loss and his life in the public eye.
“One of my biggest regrets is the last phone call I had with her. If I had known it was our last conversation, it would have been very different. And I have to live with that“, Harry said.
Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, in Paris, when Harry was 12 years old. According to him, at that time he wanted the conversation to end so he could go run and play with his cousins. Over time, this decision became a source of severe guilt.
Harry indicated that he had carried this feeling for a long time, but it changed after he himself became a parent. “Before I was a parent, it was a kind of guilt that just stuck with me. It was severe. And when you become a parent, you understand things differently“, he said.
In the conversation, the prince said that he had been emotionally numb for years after the death of his mother, Diana. He felt disloyal and guilty at the thought that he could be happy again. He said a major change came when he realized that his mother would have wanted him to live happily.
“It freed me up and gave me a completely different perspective on life“, Prince Harry said.
Harry said thatthe public nature of Diana's death made the experience even more difficult. He said that even today, people from different generations approach him and tell him that they remember exactly where they were on August 31, 1997.
“Then they look at me or my brother and say: “You were children and this happened in front of the whole world. How do you go on after something like that?“, Prince Harry said. According to him, the least he can do is share his experience and encourage people who are going through the most difficult time of their lives.
The prince also participated in a MasterClass dedicated to grief, together with researcher Mary-Frances O’Connor. He said that the therapy helped him accept the loss and build a stronger emotional connection with his friends, family and children.
In the interview, Prince Harry also spoke about returning to the UK with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children after six years in the US. He explained that the children attend a British school, and the family wants to be closer to his relatives.