Prince Harry asked his father, "Is it true that Mummy's dead?" Photo / Getty
Prince Harry asked his father, "Is it true that Mummy's dead?" Photo / Getty
The royal family's insistence on carrying on as normal in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death left Prince Harry, 12, confused and wondering if his mother had really died.
The revelation is made by the princess' biographer Tina Brown in the UK's Channel 5 documentary Diana: 7 Days That Shook The Windsors, which reveals the turmoil of the week after the royal's death.
"Prince Harry actually asked his father, 'Is it true that Mummy's dead?'" she explained. "The children couldn't understand why everything was as normal, except a couple of hours earlier they'd been told their mother had died."
The programme explains that the royals' initial reaction to Diana's death was to "do as they had always done" and, as it was a Sunday, that meant going to church at Balmoral where they where staying.
Just hours earlier William, 15, and Harry, 12, had woken to the news that their mother had been killed in a car crash in Paris.
However there was no mention of her during the service at Crathie Kirk church at the request of the Queen as she feared upsetting her grandsons.
The documentary also reveals how tensions ran high as the royals battled with Downing Street over funeral arrangements - with Prince William initially refusing to walk behind the coffin in the funeral procession until he was persuaded by Prince Philip at the 11th hour.
Prince William and Prince Harry stand outside Westminster Abbey at their mother's funeral. Photo / Getty
Meanwhile, Paul Burrell and Diana's chauffeur Colin Tebbutt had to set up a makeshift morgue when they went to Paris to collect her body from the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, bringing in fans to keep the stifling August heat at bay and hanging blankets on the windows to deter photographers.
According to the programme, it appeared to the public that the royals were treating Diana as they had done when she was alive - with "cold detachment".
Royal bigographer Ingrid Seward summed up the public reaction, saying: "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'."
The Mail's Richard Kay also recalled the shock that there was no mention of Diana during the service.
"A lot of people found it extraordinary that at that time, no mention was made of her passing," he said. "That, I think, did ring a bell all over the country."
News of Diana's death dominated the world's media. Photo / Getty
Reaction to Diana's death
PRINCE CHARLES
"When Prince Charles learned of her death he was absolutely distraught," said Brown.
"I mean, he fell apart, completely fell apart. He knew instantly that this was going to be a terrible thing, that he would be blamed, that they would be blamed for the death of Diana."
Despite all this, he decided that he was going to Paris to bring back Diana's body.
Kay explained: "In many ways, that was a very surprising and brave move because he was a divorced husband, he was an ex-husband, he had no legitimate right to be there, if you like, beyond being the father of her sons."
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward explained: "She came out of the bedroom, I remember somebody telling me, and she was sort of clutching a hot water bottle. It's cold there, even in the summer, and the Queen's first reaction was someone had greased the brakes."
Kay added: "Right from the get-go the Queen's view was the boys are the priority.
'The decision the Queen and Charles took was that they wouldn't wake William and Harry to tell them that night. They would wait until the morning and tell them then."
But there was tension between Charles and the Queen over his decision to go to Paris to collect the body of his ex-wife who had been stripped of her HRH title, and initially refused to lend him the royal private plane.
Charles is said to have asked, "well what would you have? That she came back in the back of a Harrods van?"
"Finally Charles won the argument," said Brown. "There really was a moment when it looked like he was gonna have to fly commercial to Paris, and, you know, get a taxi at the airport. which would have been incredible.
"The irony is Charles fought for Diana, more than he'd ever fought for her in her lifetime. He really did."
Heartbreakingly, 12-year-old Harry begged to go to Paris with his father but Charles did not want to put him through the ordeal.
EARL SPENCER
At the time of her death Diana and her brother weren't speaking after he denied her request for a cottage at the family estate, Althorp, to escape the media attention.
But he believed the photographers would just follow her there and he didn't want the intrusion.
"There was more bitterness in the Spencer side, and confusion, and, a sense that they had, they didn't really know what to think or feel, because Diana was a very problematic issue in their own family," Brown explained.
TONY BLAIR
Former head of government relations Anji Hunter recalled phoning the Prime Minister at his Sedgefield constituency.
"He absolutely clocked it straight away," she recalled. "There was a phrase he used to use sometimes, 'my god this is enormous doings. You know, this is really big stuff here and we've got to just you know, be absolutely wise and sensible and focused'."
But the Queen firmly believed that any reference to their mother would be "heartbreaking" for William and Harry, and even ordered all TVs and radios to be removed or hidden at Balmoral so they wouldn't hear any traumatising details of her death on the news.
The documentary also reveals tensions between the funeral committee made up of representatives of the royal family, Downing St, the police and Diana's family, laid bare by Hunter.
"The most tension in the room always came from Charles Spencer's people," she revealed.
Ingrid Seward added: "It was almost like the tug of war, you know, 'she's ours, she's ours'. Spencer saying, 'but you've thrown her out, you took away her HRH and now you want her back, she's ours'. So there was a lot of animosity."
