Princes talk about Diana in U.S. TV chat

Britain’s Prince Harry told a U.S. television interviewer that he still feels the presence of his mother Princess Diana nearly 10 years after her tragic death in a Paris car accident.

In excerpts released Tuesday of the interview Harry and his brother Prince William gave to NBC News, both sons of Diana and Prince Charles said she still constantly figures in their lives.

“Over the last ten years I personally feel as though she’s always there,” Harry, 22, told NBC anchor Matt Lauer, according to an advance view of the interview reported by People Magazine.

William, 24, said of his mother’s death: “There’s not a day goes by I don’t think about it.”

The princes, whose mother died when her paparazzi-chased limousine crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, discuss their mother and reflections on trying to lead a normal life in the interview, NBC said in a statement.

“Whatever happened in that tunnel, you know no one will ever know,” Harry said of the crash, the cause of which has never been determined.

“And I’m sure people will always think about that ... I’ll never stop wondering about that.”

The interview, recorded at the princes’ official residence in London, will be broadcast on July 1, which would have been Diana’s 46th birthday.

The princes have organized a “Concert for Diana for that day, with top stars to perform at London’s Wembley Stadium.

William was 15 and Harry 12 when their mother died. She had separated from Charles, heir to the British throne, in 1992 and they had divorced in 1996.

The two princes are now officers in the British army. Their own colorful social lives — including William’s female companions and Harry’s antics at night clubs and parties — draw intense media scrutiny in Britain.

Both acknowledged it was not possible to lead an entirely “normal” life.

“Within our private life and within certain other parts of our life we want to be as normal as possible,” Harry said. “It’s hard, because to a certain respect we never will be normal.”

William, whose breakup with girlfriend Kate Middleton made front page news in Britain, said forging relationships was difficult because of his royal status.

“I don’t want to be liked by someone just because of who I am. I don’t want the sycophantic people hanging around,” William said.

“It’s just as hard for our friends as it is for us,” Harry added. “The reason I say that is because our friends have to put up with a lot — when it comes to us.”

William agreed, saying: “There’s a lot of baggage that comes with us, trust me — a lot of baggage.”

Asked about their dream jobs if they were not British royals, William said he would like to be a helicopter pilot or work for the United Nations. Harry said he would like work as a safari guide in Africa.

Meanwhile Tina Brown, whose biography of the British princess, “The Diana Chronicles,” was just released in the United States, told CNN Tuesday that Diana was about to turn a corner in her life when the tragedy struck.

Brown, who had lunched with Diana just weeks before her death, said she was near to emerging from her troubled post-divorce period and fully taking on her nascent role as a global human rights campaigner.

There was “a sense that she was moving into a new act,” Brown said of Diana, who had already carved out a place in AIDS and land mine awareness campaigns.

“I think she would have built on that,” Brown said, calling Diana a model for celebrities now campaigning for human rights issues like Angelina Jolie.

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