Prince William is only just coming to terms with the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, he revealed in a new interview.
“It has taken me almost 20 years to get to that stage,” he told the Daily Mail. “I still find it difficult now because at the time it was so raw. And also it is not like most people’s grief, because everyone else knows about it, everyone knows the story, everyone knows her.”
The heir to the British throne was 15 when he learned his mother had died in a car crash, and said he’s still dealing with the trauma.
“People think shock can’t last that long, but it does. It’s such an unbelievably big moment in your life and it never leaves you, you just learn to deal with it,” he told the tabloid newspaper.
He said he still misses his mom and regrets that she’ll never get to know his wife, Kate Middleton, and his kids, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
“I would like to have had her advice. I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her,” he said.
William opened up as part of his campaign to eradicate taboos around mental illness and encourage typically stoic Brits to express their emotions.
His brother, Prince Harry, revealed last month that he spent years of his 20s in “total chaos” because he shut down his emotions instead of dealing with their mother’s death when he was just 12.
“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle,” he told The Telegraph.
