Diana’s brother slams ‘cruel’ treatment of Harry and Wills

Almost 20 years after the fact, Princess Diana’s brother still describes the half hour he spent walking behind her coffin as the most harrowing experience of his life.

It had been just a week since the news of her death had changed his and her sons’ lives, and the three of them – along with Prince Charles – were watched by millions as they accompanied her body in the funeral cortege.

“It was truly horrifying,” Charles Spencer tells BBC Radio 4 in a new interview.

“The feeling, the sort of absolute crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing and I still have nightmares about it now.”

But worse still, he says, is the fact that his nephews Prince William and Harry – aged just 15 and 12 at the time – had to go through the same trauma multiplied “a million times”.

RELATED: Harry’s pain at being forced to walk behind Diana’s coffin

Shockingly, Charles says he actually tried to prevent them from having to walk behind their mother’s coffin, but was thwarted by a lying palace official.

“I thought it was a very bizarre and cruel thing for them to be asked to do,” he says.

“I said, ‘she just would not want them to do this’, and there was lots of sort of embarrassed coughing the other end...

“Eventually I was lied to and told that they (William and Harry) wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t,” he claims.

Harry has recently revealed the agony of that moment, saying: “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television.”

“I don't think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don't think it would happen today.”

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