Prince Harry regrets

In his 2023 memoir Spare, Prince Harry revealed he once recreated his mother Princess Diana’s final moments in an attempt to find closure. Diana died in a car crash in Paris’s Pont de l’Alma tunnel in 1997 when Harry was just 12. While visiting Paris in 2007 for the Rugby World Cup, a 23-year-old Harry asked his driver to take him through the same tunnel at 65mph—the speed investigators claimed Diana’s car was traveling. Accompanied by two others, Harry described the moment in detail, from passing the Ritz where Diana had her last meal, to driving over the tunnel’s entrance bump, which he found underwhelming compared to what he had imagined.

Though he hoped the experience would bring comfort or cast doubt on the official story, Harry admitted it only intensified his grief. He realized the tunnel wasn’t inherently dangerous and that his desire for closure was masking deeper pain. The drive confirmed to him, more than ever, that Diana was truly gone. While it gave him the closure he thought he wanted, it also reignited his sorrow, marking what he described as “the start of Pain, Part Deux.” Harry ultimately reflected on the decision as a regrettable and painful attempt to heal.