Prince Harry Criticizes Paparazzi Who Photographed Princess Diana’s Car Crash
As the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s tragic death approaches, a number of new TV specials about her life and legacy are set to air on TV. Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, have been opening up about life with their mom on camera for the first time, and in an upcoming BBC documentary, Diana, 7 Days, they have some harsh words for the paparazzi who were on the scene of the August 31 car crash that killed her.
Prince Harry criticises paparazzi for taking pictures of Princess Diana while she was dying in Paris, 20 years agohttps://t.co/jbADULnL3Z pic.twitter.com/a2Xj4G3pWc
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 23, 2017
“One of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that people who chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car,” Harry says in one very emotionally heavy clip.
“William and I know that — we’ve been told that numerous times by people that know that was the case,” he continued. “She’d had quite a severe head injury but she was very much still alive on the back seat. And those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat. And then those photographs made their way back to news desks in this country.”
Prince William said separately that the press hounded their mother “like a pack of dogs, followed her, chased her, harassed her, called her names, spat at her, tried to get a reaction to get that photograph of her lashing out, get her upset.”
In the past, the princes have spoken about what their lives were like after Diana’s death, including that the Queen had all TVs and radios removed from the boys’ home so they wouldn’t be subject to the nonstop, often sensationalized, press coverage.
Harry has been particularly honest about how he simply shut down his emotions following his mother’s death. And in a promo for Diana, 7 Days, William opens up about how he coped. “When you have something so traumatic as the death of your mother when you’re 15…it’ll either make or break you,” he says. “And I wouldn’t let it break me. I wanted it to make me. I wanted her to be proud of the person I would become. I didn’t want her worried or her legacy to be that William and/or Harry were completely and utterly devastated by it, and that all the hard work and all the love and all the energy she put into us when we were younger would go to waste.”
Diana, 7 Days will air on the BBC on Sunday, August 27.
Will you watch any of the Princess Diana specials? Let us know @BritandCo.
(Photo via Jack Taylor/Getty)
