Prince Harry Reveals the Princess Diana Regret He Still Lives With

Prince Harry has opened up about a regret involving Princess Diana that has stayed with him for nearly three decades: the rushed final phone call he had with his mother before her death.

Harry, 42, reflected on the painful memory during a new interview with GQ, recalling the final conversation he had with Diana before she died following a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

The Duke of Sussex was just 12 at the time and was staying at Balmoral in Scotland with Prince William and other members of the royal family. Looking back now, Harry admitted that what seemed like an ordinary conversation between a mother and her young son became a memory he would carry for the rest of his life.

Prince Harry Says His Final Call With Princess Diana Still Weighs on Him

Harry told GQ that the last phone call remained one of his “biggest regrets.” “If I’d known it was the last call with her, how different that conversation would’ve been,” he said.

Harry added, “I’m the one that has to live with that,” explaining that as a 12-year-old boy, he simply wanted to get back to running around and playing with his cousins. It was not the first time he had spoken about the memory.

In the 2017 documentary “Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy,” Harry and William recalled being at Balmoral when Diana called from Paris. Harry admitted he could not remember exactly what he said to his mother but remembered regretting how short the conversation had been. ITV reported at the time that Diana died only a few hours after the call ended.

Fatherhood Changed How Harry Viewed His Childhood Guilt

Harry told GQ that the guilt surrounding the final call felt particularly difficult before he became a parent himself. “Before I was a parent, that was a bit of guilt and stuff that just really stuck with me,” he said, describing the feeling as “heavy.”

Harry and Meghan Markle share Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5. The Duke explained that becoming a father changed the way he thought about emotions and what children can pick up from their parents.

He recalled returning home when Archie was a baby while carrying significant stress. When Harry took his son from Meghan, he noticed Archie would immediately react if he was still tense. Harry eventually began using his roughly 40-minute drives home from London to calm himself before seeing his son.

“As a parent, we’ve just got to be so conscious about what we carry that they can pick up,” he told GQ. The experience appears to have helped Harry look differently at his own 12-year-old self and the guilt he attached to that final call with Diana.

Prince Harry Says He Still Feels Connected to Diana

Nearly three decades after his mother’s death, Harry said Diana remains a regular presence in his thoughts. He told GQ that he wonders what the world would look like if she were still alive and what his own family might be like with her in it.

Harry also said there are times when he asks his mother questions and feels as though he receives some form of response. “There is a connection still with my mom,” he said, adding that he sometimes feels her energy during particular moments in his life.

Harry has spoken elsewhere about finding ways to reconnect with memories of Diana. For instance, Diana’s favorite perfume helped Harry recover memories of her voice, laugh and presence after years of emotional numbness.

His latest reflections come as he continues exploring grief publicly through “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss,” his new MasterClass with neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor. The program explores how grief affects the brain and body and offers tools for processing loss while continuing to honor the person who died.

Harry told GQ that he once struggled with the idea that allowing himself to become happy might somehow mean betraying his mother’s memory. Therapy ultimately helped him approach grief differently. Rather than believing it was something he needed to overcome completely, Harry said he learned to live with it while carrying Diana’s memory forward.

That shift has also changed the way he looks back at their final conversation: the call cannot be changed, but becoming a parent has helped him better understand the 12-year-old boy who had no way of knowing it would be his last chance to speak to his mother.