Prince Harry wanted to walk away from royal life after his mom Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role — wherever this is headed, I don’t like it,’” the Duke of Sussex said Thursday, during a discussion with Australian business leader and former politician Brendan Nelson at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne, according to People.
Harry, who was 12 at the time of the tragedy, claimed Diana’s job as a royal got her “killed,” and he didn’t want to suffer the same fate.
“I was very much against it, and I stuck my head in the sand for years and years,” he shared.
But the “Spare” author changed his mind about quitting royal life — which he later did in 2020 — after reminding himself that he could use his privilege to “make a difference in the world.”
“And also, what would my mum want me to do?” he added of Diana. “And that really changed my own perspective.”
Princess Diana tragically died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997 when her sons, Harry and Prince William, were just 12 and 15, respectively.
She was in a Mercedes being chased by paparazzi when the vehicle crashed into a pillar inside Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Her driver, Henri Paul, had a concoction of prescription drugs and alcohol in his system and was speeding at 65 mph.
Back in 2017, Harry shared in an interview with The Telegraph that he nearly had a “complete breakdown” years after Diana died.
“I can safely say that losing my mom at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” he said at the time.
The Duke of Sussex also revealed he sought help from a “shrink” to cope with Diana’s death.
Harry has also opened up over the years about being the “spare” to William in the royal line of succession when they were growing up.
“I took no offense, I felt nothing about it, any of it,” he wrote in his 2023 memoir. “Every boy and girl, at least once, imagines themselves as a prince or a princess. Therefore, Spare or no Spare, it wasn’t half bad to actually be one.”
Elsewhere in his book, Harry claimed that his dad, King Charles III, branded him a “spare” on the day that he was born.
Before his discussion with Nelson on Thursday, Harry talked about grief while giving the keynote address at the InterEdge Summit on day three of his and Meghan Markle’s Australia tour.
“In my experience, loss is disorienting at any age,” Harry told the audience. “Grief does not disappear because we ignore it.”
The former military pilot continued, “Experiencing that as a kid while in a goldfish bowl under constant surveillance, yes, that will have its challenges. And without purpose, it can break you.”
Harry also admitted that he’s felt “lost, betrayed or completely powerless” many times throughout his life, but his resilience has helped him overcome his struggles.
The Sussexes, who got married in 2018, quit their royal duties two years later and moved from the UK to Montecito, California, where they live in a $14 million mansion with their two kids: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.
Harry is currently estranged from his family after slamming them in his 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview and 2022 Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan.”
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