Broadcast journalist and CBS anchor, Anderson Cooper, has spoken of his surprise at how affected Prince Harry has been by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, as part of a reflection on his 60 Minutes interview special with the royal which aired on Sunday.
The prince sat down with Cooper in California for an interview promoting his soon-to-be-published tell-all memoir, Spare.
The book is billed by its publishers as a “raw” and “unflinching” assessment of Harry’s life, written from his perspective: “Not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become.”
A number of highly emotional revelations from the memoir have already been released after British and American news outlets managed to obtain copies ahead of the official publication date.
Speaking to Cooper, Harry opened up about the grieving he did and did not do after Diana’s death in 1997 when he was just 12 years old and how he has carried through the processing of this into his adult life.
No stranger to similar personal losses, Cooper lost his father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, when he was just 10 years old. He also lost his older brother, Carter, who committed suicide at the age of 28 in 1988. Cooper’s mother, the famous socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, died in 2019 at the age of 95.
“When I agreed to do this interview I obviously had not read the book yet,” Cooper said of Spare, reflecting on the idea of grief. “But I did not expect there to be such a focus on the early trauma in Harry’s life.
“One of the things that surprised me and interested me was how the loss of his mother when he was 12 years old completely altered the course of the rest of his life.”
On his mother’s death and its effects, Harry told the journalist: “For most people, you know, who have lost a parent or a sibling at a young age…I think once you’ve accepted that they’re gone, then you accept that your life is never going to be the same ever again.”
“It changed the person who he was,” Cooper told the 60 Minutes audience in a post-interview summary, “and that’s something that I personally felt a sort of understanding of, because of losing my dad when I was 10 years old.”
“I didn’t realize going into this that the subject of grief and loss would be something that was so present in his life for the rest of his life.”
A key theme in the pre-release date leaks of Spare, which have been commented on by the press, are Harry’s formative years and the suppression of grief, guilt and pain associated with his mother’s death. He has also spoken at length about the precautions he felt were necessary to take (including leaving Britain) to protect his wife Meghan Markle from the tabloid press and to ensure that history doesn’t “repeat itself.”
“Having been through what you’ve been through now, do you understand your mom differently?” Cooper asked him. “One thing I’ve realized about grief and loss is that one’s relationship with somebody who’s died continues and your understanding of them actually can change over time. Having been through what you’ve been through with the family, with your wife, with the press, do you understand your mother from a different angle?”
“Over the years I have understood it more,” the prince responded. “But yes, certainly as a parent to two little kids, I’m starting to comprehend the position that she was in as a mother, single parent trying to look after two boys, with this intense media harassment—it wasn’t online then, it was very much physical.
“She was being chased the majority of her life when she got together with my father. It got so much worse after the divorce.
“So, I’ve done and continue to do everything I can to make sure that that doesn’t happen to my family,” he continued. “Because it certainly didn’t seem as though the British press have changed their ways. You know I’ve made peace with losing her, but I’m now turning that pain into purpose.”
As well as his discussion with Cooper for 60 Minutes, the prince also gave an interview to British network ITV, which was aired in the U.K. on Sunday night.
In this, the royal discussed a number of similar issues, including the feeling of guilt when faced with tearful crowds outside Kensington Palace in the days after Diana’s death, over his not feeling able to express equal emotion.
The royal is scheduled to appear live on Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to discuss his memoir.
Spare is released globally on January 10.
Newsweek approached representatives of Anderson Cooper and Prince Harry for comment.
