Princes William and Harry recall their anger at how the press treated Princess Diana

LONDON - MAY 7: (FILE PHOTO) Princess Diana, Princess of Wales with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry attend the Heads of State VE Remembrance Service in Hyde Park on May 7, 1995 in London, England. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

In the new BBC documentary “Diana, 7 Days,” which is set to air on September 1, Prince William and Prince Harry open up about the anger they harbored towards the press for the way they treated their mother Princess Diana.

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“Very sadly, a lot of my memories revolve around trying to cheer her up,” William says in the upcoming documentary. “I believe she cried more to do with the press intrusion than anything else in her life. The impact it was having on her that we would then see and feel was very difficult to understand. She was subjected to treatment that frankly nowadays people would find utterly appalling.”

“We’d go looking for her, to talk to her, to play and she’d be crying — and when that was the case, it was to do with the press. She’d had a confrontation with photographers on the way to the gym or on the way outside just trying to do day-to-day stuff. The damage for me, being a little boy being 8, 9, 10 and wanting to protect your mother and finding it very difficult seeing her upset,” Prince William continues. “Every single time she went out there’d be a pack of people waiting for her. I mean a pack of dogs, followed her, chased her, harassed her, called her names, spat at her, trying to get a reaction, to get that photograph of her lashing out, get her upset.”

RELATED: Princes William and Harry’s touching final tribute to Princess Diana will tug at your heartstrings

While Princess Diana enjoyed the press attention in the early days, it became unbearable as her marriage to Prince Charles began to unravel. Prince Harry recalled a time when the paparazzi were chasing their vehicle so relentlessly that Princess Diana pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the car and started yelling at the photographers. When she got back in the car, she couldn’t even speak because she was crying so hard. Prince Harry remembered wondering to himself, “Is this the way it was supposed to be for the rest of our lives?”

Sadly, the paparazzi’s obsession with Princess Diana contributed to her tragic death, as she was killed in a car accident while being chased by photographers in Paris.

“One of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people who 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,” Prince Harry says in the documentary. “William and I know that, we have been told that numerous times by people who know that was the case. She had quite a severe head injury but was still very much alive on the back seat and those who caused the accident instead of helping were taking photographs of her dying. And then those photographs made their way back to news desks in this country.”

RELATED: Princes William and Harry speak candidly about Diana’s funeral in an emotional BBC documentary

 

Prince William talks about Princess Diana being a grandmother

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