Prince Harry and Prince William Were Denied Counseling After Princess Diana’s Death and Told to ‘Get on With It,’ Book Claims
Prince William and Prince Harry were just 15 and 12 when their mother, Princess Diana, died following a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. As if losing a parent isn’t hard enough, the princes had to go through that tragedy with the whole world watching. And many will never forget the heartbreaking images of William and Harry walking behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral possession.
Now, a new book is claiming that it was requested that Diana’s sons get some grief counseling after her death but that was denied and Prince William was allegedly told to just “get on with it.”
New book claims the queen denied request for William and Harry to see grief counselor after their mom died
According to Christopher Andersen’s book Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan Prince Charles spoke to Queen Elizabeth II about William and Harry getting counseling. The book claims that the queen originally agreed to the request, but later changed her mind after speaking to her royal advisers.
The Express noted that Andresen’s book quotes a St. James Palace staffer saying: “The queen initially agreed that it was a good idea but was talked out of it.” The author added that the monarch’s advisors allegedly told her that it “would simply not look good at the moment for royal family members.“
Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan also mentions Princess Diana’s friend, Oonagh Toffolo, who said that the princes absolutely needed counseling after losing their mother. But Anderson wrote that it didn’t happen and instead Diana’s oldest son, Prince William, was given a “let’s get on with it” message from his father.
Prince Harry has told different stories about seeking therapy
Whether or not the book’s claim is true we know that at some point the princess’s youngest son did get therapy. However, Harry changed his story about when he decided on that. Back in 2017 the now-Duke of Sussex told The Telegraph that he had been in therapy for a number of years and that his brother is the person who urged him to get counseling. Biographer Angela Levin later spoke to Harry about the same subject and asked: “Are you going because Meghan suggested it?” To which the prince responded: “Absolutely not, she had nothing to do with it, it was William. He was the one who saved me.”
However, in the Apple+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See, the prince said that his wife is the person who inspired him to seek help.
“It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with,” he explained (per People). “When she said, ‘I think you need to see someone,’ that was in reaction to an argument we had. And in that argument, not knowing about it, I reverted back to 12-year-old Harry.”
Prince William spoke about trying to ‘find a balance’ after Princess Diana’s death
The Duke of Cambridge previously spoke about what he went through right after his mother died as he tried to “find the balance” between what he was feeling inside and keeping a stiff upper lip on the outside.
He recalled what he did while walking behind his mom’s coffin remembering that “if I looked at the floor and my [bangs] came down over my face no one could see me … There is that balance between duty and family and that’s what we had to do.” He added that he had to find that balance “between me being Prince William and having to do my bit, versus the private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry, who’d lost his mother.”
As for the allegations in the book, Buckingham Palace has said: “We don’t comment on books of this kind as to do so risks giving it some form of authority or credibility.”
