• After her death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana’s funeral took place at Westminster Abbey in London on September 6.
  • Controversially, her sons Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, just 12, walked behind her coffin as it headed to the Abbey.
  • They were joined by their father, Prince Charles, their grandfather, Prince Philip, and their uncle, Earl Charles Spencer—Diana’s younger brother, who also eulogized her.

In hindsight, it quite frankly seems like a terrible idea—the thought of putting Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, then only 12, in the position of walking behind the coffin of their mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997 at just 36 years old.

The world watched as William and Harry walked alongside their father Prince Charles, their grandfather Prince Philip, and their uncle Earl Charles Spencer—Diana’s younger brother—on September 6, 1997 as her coffin headed to Westminster Abbey. They were followed, poignantly, by representatives of charities that the Princess of Wales had supported before her untimely death.

Prince Philip, Prince William, Charles Spencer, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles.

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In the 2017 BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days, both brothers confirmed (via People) that it was a “group decision” for them to do so, with William saying, “It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was a collective family decision to do that.”

For what it’s worth, Spencer was against the idea, particularly that “tiny” Harry should have to do this: “I was just so worried—what a trauma for a little chap to walk behind his mum’s body,” he told People in 2017, which marked the 20th anniversary of her death. “It’s just awful. And actually, I tried to stop that happening, to be honest.”

Harry opened up about the moment in his 2023 memoir Spare, writing that “several adults were aghast” and that “mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell. ‘You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin! It’s barbaric.’”

Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Charles Spencer, Prince William, and Prince Philip behind Princess Diana’s coffin.

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Spencer told BBC Radio 4 that making William and Harry do this was “bizarre and cruel,” and said that he was “lied to and told that they wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t.”

“It was the most horrifying half an hour of my life,” he said. “It was just ghastly. And it was far worse than having to deliver a speech at the end of it.” (He eulogized his older sister inside the Abbey.)

The walk “was the worst part of the day by a considerable margin, walking behind, well, my sister’s body, with two boys who were obviously massively grieving their mother,” he continued. “And it was this sort of bizarre circumstance where we told you had to look straight ahead. But the feeling, the sort of crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion—it was really harrowing, actually, and I still have nightmares about it now.”

Charles Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles.

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In the pages of Spare, Harry shared an “alternative plan” for William to walk alone, but that was shut down. “Back came the answer,” he continued. “It must be both princes.” He added, “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.”

“Before I knew it, I found myself with a suit on with a black tie and a white shirt, I think, and I was part of it,” Harry said in the 2017 documentary. “Genuinely, I don’t have an opinion on whether that was right or wrong. I am glad I was part of it. Looking back on it now, I am very glad I was part of it.”

Prince William and Prince Harry at Princess Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997.

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William called the experience a “long and lonely walk” in the documentary, adding, “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But we were overwhelmed by how many people turned out—it was just incredible. There was that balance between duty and family, and that’s what we had to do.”

He also admitted that his bangs were “my safety blanket” that day, and that he was confronted with “the balance of me being Prince WIlliam and having to do my bit versus the private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry because he’d lost his mother.”

Writing in Spare, Harry said he felt “numb” during the experience, but got strength from William, who was in his line of sight. “Most of all I remember the sounds, the clicking bridles and clipping hooves of the six sweaty brown horses, the squeaking wheels of the gun carriage they were hauling,” he wrote in his memoir. “I believe I’ll remember those few sounds for the rest of my life, because they were such a sharp contrast to the otherwise all-encompassing silence.”

Prince William and Prince Harry on July 1, 2021.

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Harry added in the documentary that “of course there was a huge amount of silence, but what I remember is every 50 yards or whatever, certain people in the crowd just unable to contain their emotion. That was a big thing.”

William called it “an alien environment” and said, “I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to cry as loud as they did and show such emotion as they did, when they didn’t really know our mother. I did feel a bit protective at times—I thought, ‘You didn’t even know her, why and how are you so upset?’”

“Now, looking back, I’ve learned to understand what it was that she gave the world, what she gave a lot of people,” he continued. “Back in the ‘90s, there weren’t a lot of public figures doing what she did, so she was this ray of light in a fairly gray world.”

Princess Diana on May 27, 1997.

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He added, “Both our parents brought us up to understand that there is this element of duty and responsibility that you have to do things you don’t want to do. When it becomes that personal, walking behind your mother’s funeral cortege, it goes to another level of duty. But I just kept thinking about what she would want and that she’d be proud of Harry and I, and effectively, she was there with us. It felt like she was walking alongside us to get us through it.”