Prince Harry blames paparazzi for Princess Diana's death
Britain's Prince Harry is denouncing the paparazzi photographers who chased after Princess Diana the night she was killed in a car wreck. He speaks out in a new BBC documentary about the accident in Paris and the extraordinary reaction to Diana's death 20 years ago next week. Harry and his brother, Prince William, appear in the documentary.
"I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car," Harry said.
In the new documentary, he not only blamed the paparazzi for the crash that killed his mom, but accused them of standing by and watching her die, reports CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti.
"She'd quite a severe head injury but she was very much still alive in the back seat and those people that caused the accident, instead of helping they were taking photographs in the back seat and then those photographs made their way back to news desks," Harry said.
A group of photographers chased after the car Princess Diana was riding in just before it lost control inside a Paris tunnel the night of August 31, 1997. The driver, who also died in the crash, was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time.
Ken Wharfe, Princess Diana's former bodyguard, said her own security could have done more to prevent the deadly cat-and-mouse pursuit.
"Why don't we give them a photo call? You know, Diana had given millions of photo opportunities in her life. And part of her problem in Paris was this desire by the gathering media circus for a picture," Wharfe said.
Nearing the anniversary of Diana's death, the what-ifs still persist.
"It'll either make or break you. And I wouldn't let it break me," Prince William said. He simply called it the hardest moment of his life.
"I wanted her to be proud of the person I would become. I didn't want her worried or her legacy to be that William and/or Harry were completely devastated by it," William said.
William and Harry said they specifically waited for the 20th anniversary to talk so openly about their mother's death. William even said, "We won't be doing this again."