According to a longtime royal reporter, Prince Harry wasn't happy about the way the royal family responded to the 2008 verdict in the inquest of the death of his mother, Princess Diana. Duncan Larcombe, a royal reporter, told Ok! Magazine that he had a private meeting with Harry afterwards. "Harry was absolutely furious that his father's advisors had put out a statement. That was a sign to me that he has an inbuilt, unresolved anger about having no control of what's said," Larcombe claimed to Ok! Magazine. It's unclear which statement Larcombe is referring to. "This desire to control his own destiny has always been there."
The 2008 inquest into the death of Princess Diana was a highly publicized investigation into the car crash that killed Harry and William's mother. The case heard from 278 witnesses and cost taxpayers more than £6.5 million, per The Guardian. After 22 hours of deliberation, the jury determined that Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed by a combination of the paparazzi following them, as well as by the driving of their chauffeur Henri Paul. Amounting to manslaughter, "unlawful killing" was the most serious verdict available to the jury.
At the time of the verdict, Prince William and Prince Harry said to the press regarding the jurors and their decision: "We agree with their verdicts and are both hugely grateful." They also thanked the jury, "for the forbearance they have shown in accepting such significant disruption to their lives over the past six months."
Larcome also claimed in the interview that Harry had never been able to shake his discomfort at "not being normal," and has felt frustrated about how he is compared to his brother, Prince William, the future king.
Over the past couple of years, Harry has bravely spoken out about how his mother's loss affected him and his mental health. During the filming of ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, he told anchor Tom Bradby that every camera flash he sees reminds him of Princess Diana.
"Being part of this family, in this role, in this job, every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back," he said in 2019. "So in that respect, it's the worst reminder of her life, as opposed to the best."
Both Harry and William have made clear that Diana is still a huge part of their lives. "When it came to the wedding, I did really feel that she was there. You know, there was times when you look to someone or something for strength and I very much felt she was there for me," William said in documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.
"She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. Behind the media glare, to us, two children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world," Harry said in a 2007 speech.
