Saturday, September 6 will mark the 28th anniversary of Princess Diana’s funeral, and one memory that’s stuck in the public’s minds is the image of Prince Harry and Prince William walking behind their mother’s coffin through the streets of London. But in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, he revealed that one member of his family fought for the boys to be left out of the funeral procession.
In the book, the Duke of Sussex wrote of the period leading up to his mother’s 1997 funeral, recalling, “There was some discussion about the next day’s funeral. Per the latest plan, the coffin would be pulled through the streets on a horse-drawn carriage by the King’s Troop while Willy and I followed on foot.” Harry continued, “It seemed a lot to ask of two young boys,” noting that “several adults were aghast” and “Mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell.”
As the younger brother of Diana and head of the Spencer family, Charles, Earl Spencer, was the one who ultimately made the decision for Diana to have a royal funeral, as revealed in former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter’s memoir, On Duty With The Queen.
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Prince Philip (far left), Earl Spencer (center) and Prince Charles (far right) joined Harry and William to walk behind Diana’s coffin.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Princess Diana’s funeral took place on September 6, 1997.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Per the duke, Earl Spencer said, “You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin!” calling the idea “barbaric.” Aides then came up with “an alternative plan” that proposed Prince William “would walk alone,” Harry wrote. “He was fifteen, after all. Leave the younger one out of it. Spare the Spare.”
That plan was scrapped, with the Duke of Sussex writing, “Back came the answer. It must be both princes. To garner sympathy, presumably.” Although his “Uncle Charles was furious,” Harry said he wasn’t. “I didn’t want Willy to undergo an ordeal like that without me. Had the roles been reversed, he’d never have wanted me—indeed, allowed me—to go it alone.”
In the end, The King (then Prince Charles), Earl Spencer and Prince Philip joined the young princes to walk behind Diana’s coffin en route to Westminster Abbey. After Prince Philip’s 2021 death, former government relations director Anji Hunter told the Standard about his involvement in the days leading up to the funeral.
“We were all talking about how William and Harry should be involved and suddenly came Prince Philip’s voice,” she told the media outlet. “We hadn’t heard from him before, but he was really anguished. ‘It’s about the boys,’ he cried, ‘They’ve lost their mother.'” According to the media outlet, Philip told his grandsons the night before the funeral, “I’ll walk if you walk.”
