In a new Prince Harry GQ interview published on October 20, the Duke of Sussex gave one of his most emotional accounts yet of life after his mother’s death. Nearly 29 years after Princess Diana died, the 42-year-old revealed that he thinks about her “almost every day.” He also shared the quietly heartbreaking question he still asks her.
He does not sit down for long, heavy sessions of reflection. However, he admits he probably should. Instead, it is a quick thought that surfaces on its own. “Wow, miss you,” he says to himself. “Wonder what the world would be like if you were still here. Wonder what my family would be like if you were still here.” Sometimes he asks the questions directly to her, hoping for a response — and sometimes, he says, he feels he gets one. Not in words, but in what he called an “energy.”
What the Prince Harry GQ interview revealed about grief
The interview also caps an unusually open month for Harry. His MasterClass session, Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, premiered on October 8. He filmed it in California with neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor.
But for years, Harry shut his emotions down almost completely. He has said he did not cry over his mother’s death for roughly two decades. He even felt he had to look sad to prove he missed her. As a result, he felt “disloyal and guilty” whenever he caught himself feeling happy. As CelebWatch reported earlier this month, he also admitted in the same MasterClass that he “slipped into depression” for about two weeks after the family’s 2019 move to Canada.
Today he calls his grief both “better and harder.” He is also clear that he wants no pity. “I certainly don’t want any sympathy,” he told GQ. “I’ve done different forms of therapy, and I put in the work.”
The final phone call he wishes he could redo
The most painful moment in the interview concerns the last time Harry spoke to his mother. “If I’d known it was the last call with her, how different that conversation would’ve been,” he said. “And I’m the one that has to live with that.”
He was only 12, so all he wanted was to hang up and play with his cousins. That ordinary childhood impatience later became a lasting source of guilt. However, becoming a father himself — to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — helped him reframe it. He has said parenthood eased some of the weight he carried for years.
Diana, Princess of Wales, died on August 31, 1997, at age 36, in a car crash in Paris. As Parade reported, Harry now hopes that sharing his story will help others facing loss.
How a bottle of perfume unlocked memories buried for decades
Harry also revealed that he once forgot what his mother’s voice sounded like. He struggled to picture her face without a photograph. Then his therapist introduced a technique built on familiar scents, a method also used with military veterans facing post-traumatic stress.
For Harry, that meant spraying First by Van Cleef & Arpels, Diana’s favorite fragrance — also mentioned in his 2023 memoir Spare. “It was like being transported to another time,” he recalled. The familiar scent helped buried memories resurface.
He also spoke about a treasured photograph of Diana, the Patrick Demarchelier portrait from Harper’s Bazaar in 1995. “I can actually get eye contact from her, and there’s a cheekiness in her smile,” he said. “I just feel very connected to her.” He sometimes studies it and wonders what she would think of his choices today, as BANG Premier reported.
Why scent can unlock memories, according to science
There is real neuroscience behind his experience. Smell is the only sense wired straight into the brain’s emotion and memory centers. The olfactory bulb feeds directly into the amygdala and hippocampus. Researchers call it the “Proust effect,” after the famous passage where a madeleine unleashes a flood of childhood memory.
Studies show that smell-triggered memories feel more emotional and vivid than those triggered by words or pictures. So trauma therapists sometimes use familiar scents as grounding tools. A smell can reach feelings that talking alone cannot. In Harry’s case, for example, one familiar fragrance appears to have done exactly that.
Timeline: Prince Harry’s grief journey, from 1997 to today
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Aug 31, 1997 | Princess Diana dies in a Paris car crash. Harry is 12. |
| 2023 | Harry publishes Spare, writing about suppressed grief and his mother’s perfume. |
| Oct 8, 2026 | MasterClass premieres Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss. |
| Oct 20, 2026 | GQ publishes the interview where Harry says he thinks of Diana “almost every day.” |
| Aug 2027 | The 30th anniversary of Diana’s death. A documentary built on her 1991 recordings is reportedly in the works. |
What’s next as Diana’s 30th anniversary approaches
The Prince Harry GQ interview arrives at a symbolic moment. After six years in California, Harry and Meghan Markle returned to the UK in late August with Archie and Lilibet. The children now attend British schools. “I love the fact that I’m able to now sort of carry the memory of my mother with me, with my work,” he said, “rather than it hold me down.”
Meanwhile, his schedule since the move has stayed packed. Earlier this month, he made a surprise appearance at a London fundraiser for Ukraine. He also addressed NATO’s Military Committee by video. In addition, reports of a Diana documentary timed to the 2027 anniversary keep circulating, though details remain unconfirmed.
For a man who once could not cry over his mother’s death, asking her questions out loud is its own milestone. The question he asks almost every day may never get a reply in words. But the energy he feels in return seems to be enough.
