The royal family was left shaken by the devastating news delivered to them about a beloved member of the household.
King Charles may not have had a successful marriage with his wife, but they eventually learned to get along after their very public and messy divorce, for the sake of their two young sons.
Prince William and Prince Harry were quite close while growing up and they both shared a mutual love and admiration for their mother. Given whatever grievances the late Queen Elizabeth may have had with her former daughter-in-law, she did not hesitate to take immediate action to protect her beloved grandson.
Diana died on August 31, exactly 28 years ago, in a fatal car crash with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in Paris. The princess had died within hours of the crash and before the media went rampant with the news, Elizabeth sprung into action for her grandson, per royal expert and Diana’s friend, Tina Brown.
The family was at Balmoral Castle at the time.
“The Queen immediately said that every TV, every radio set had to be removed. The only TV sets that remained were in the private rooms of the Queen and Prince Philip,” Brown said in Channel 5’s The Day Diana Died documentary.
“For her, the only important thing was to protect Harry and William from the loss of their mother.”
The late Queen wanted that the young princes should only hear the news from their father, then-Prince Charles.
Prince Harry detailed the conversation in his memoir, Spare, about how his father delivered the heartbreaking news
“My dear son, mum has had a car accident,” Charles had said. “There have been complications. Mum has been seriously injured and has been taken to hospital, my dear son.”