King Charles is probably “haunted” by the royal family’s decision to make his sons walk behind Princess Diana’s coffin, a royal expert has claimed.
Christopher Anderson made the remarks on the Royally Us podcast after addressing the monarch’s remorse in his new book called ‘The King: The Life of Charles III’.
“Charles has very deep regret about how he forced William and Harry to walk behind their mother’s coffin,” it partly read.
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The brothers, who were aged just 15 and 12 at the time, assisted their father, uncle and grandfather during the emotional procession.
Watched by melancholy crowds, William and Harry walked through central London as part of her funeral cortege, alongside Charles Spencer, her brother, and then-Prince Charles and Prince Philip in September 1997.
It is understood that the royal family wanted the young princes to walk behind their mother’s coffin as a sign of tradition, expressing the continuity of the monarchy and the constitution.
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Christina Garibaldi, the host of the podcast, asked Mr Anderson whether the King is “haunted” by the decision to make William and Harry take part, reports Express.
The biographer said: “It probably haunts him because it haunts them still to this day. I really believe is a form of PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] — Harry has spoken about the triggering event of flying into London, it reminds him of that day when he had to walk behind the coffin.
“They were more or less bullied into doing it by the house, by the ‘men in grey’ — as Diana used to call them. Both Philip and Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, said they regretted the fact that they convinced them [to do it].”
In the years since the funeral, both William and Harry have spoken out about how difficult they found that day and how it has affected them into adulthood.
After the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September, the Prince of Wales said that walking behind his grandmother’s coffin reminded him of his mother’s funeral 25 years ago.
(Image: Getty Images)
During his and Kate, Princess of Wales’ first solo outing in their new roles, William said he found the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey “very difficult”.
William has previously spoken about how difficult it was to walk behind his mother’s coffin. In a 2017 documentary, he told the BBC about the “very long, lonely walk,” calling it “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done”.
He continued: “There is that balance between duty and family, and that’s what we had to do,” adding there was a difference “between me being Prince William and having to do my bit, versus the private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry, who’d lost his mother”.
Similarly, his younger brother has spoken out about the walk, telling Newsweek in 2017: “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.”
In an interview with the BBC two months later, the Duke of Sussex said he didn’t “have an opinion whether that was right or wrong” to join the walk, and said he was “very glad” to have been a part of the day.
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