Diana's 'message' for Harry from beyond the grave

Prince Harry was only 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash in Paris.   

Its impact on the Duke of Sussex, now 41, is one of the major themes of his searing memoir Spare, with Harry recounting how he tried to come to terms with Diana's death in the years since. 

In an emotional admission, he recalled being driven through the Alma underpass at the same speed that Diana's chauffeur was driving when the accident occurred, hoping it would give him the 'closure he wanted'. 

Instead, it had the opposite effect on Harry, then 23, who later got drunk and wandered the streets of the French capital during his 2007 visit. 

Diana's death continued to haunt the grief-stricken Prince after he quit the royal family and relocated to Montecito, California, with his wife Meghan Markle and their son, Prince Archie, in 2020. 

Sometime after Christmas that year, Harry said he met a woman who said she could contact his late 'mummy' - and described the surprising 'sign' that confirmed her 'powers'.

Earlier in the book, Harry recalled how Archie was playing around their family's Christmas tree when he accidentally broke an ornament in the shape of his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

'Your mother says she had a bit of a giggle about that,' the woman told Harry as 'proof' because Diana could only have known about the incident if 'she was there'.

The Duke published his tell-all memoir in January 2023, and the book became the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the UK of all time. 

Spare, which was accidentally leaked in Spain ahead of its release, made headlines around the world as it included a number of explosive claims about the royal family in the wake of Megxit. 

In the book, ghostwritten by Pulitzer Prize winner JR Moehringer, Harry also shared intimate details about his private life - including that he 'peed his pants' before his first date with Meghan and used recreational drugs until the age of 36.  

While promoting Spare, Harry also controversially discussed his use of psychedelics like ayahuasca and magic mushrooms to cope with the grief of losing Diana in what was seen, by some, as glorifying drug use. 

In an interview with The Telegraph, Harry said he took ayahuasca under supervision and 'realised...she [Diana] wants me to be happy'. 

'So this weight off my chest was not the need to cry, it was the acceptance and realisation that she has gone, but that she wants me to be happy and that she’s very much present in my life,' he continued. 

And when he moved to Montecito, where the Sussexes live in a $29 million mansion, he sought the help of a psychic after she came highly recommended by 'trusted friends' of the Duke.  

The prince acknowledged that, although there was a 'high-percentage chance of humbuggery' there was no 'harm' in meeting the Los Angeles-based woman.  

'Then, the minute we sat down together, I felt an energy around her,' he wrote in Spare. 

The woman then told Harry that she 'felt an energy around me too' before confirming: 'Your mother is with you.' 

 Harry 'felt his neck grow warm' and noticed his eyes started watering when he understood what the woman meant. 

'Your mother knows you're looking for clarity,' the woman continued. 'Your mother feels your confusion.

She knows that you have so many questions.'  

When Harry replied 'I do', the woman, speaking on behalf of Diana, said 'the answers will come' and that she understood it 'wasn't easy'. 

The prince asked her to elaborate, when the woman appeared to reference his decision to quit the royal family. 

'Your mother says: You're living the life she couldn't. You're living the life she wanted for you.'

Although Harry was moved by the message, he desperately needed a 'sign' it had actually come from Diana. 

That was when the woman brought up the 'ornament' as she told Harry: 'Your mother says...something about a Christmas ornament? Of a mother? Or a grandmother? It fell? Broke?' 

Recalling the incident at his house, when Archie broke the Queen-shaped ornament hanging on the Sussexes' tree, Harry understood 'she was there'. 

This Christmas will mark the sixth year that Prince Harry has spent away from his family after the schism that was dubbed 'Megxit'. 

While senior royals will begin making their way to King Charles's Sandringham estate for their annual festivities, Harry and Meghan will spend the holiday season in Los Angeles with their two children, Archie, now six, and Princess Lilibet, four. 

In addition to their estrangement from the royal family, Meghan last week said she has 'no plans' of seeing her father, Thomas Markle, after he underwent a life-saving leg amputation in the Philippines. 

After failing to get hold of him by email or phone, the Duchess - who has not seen him since she married Prince Harry in 2018 - 'reached out' to her father in the form of a hand-delivered letter. 

However she is thought to believe his relationship with the media - understood to be something she addresses in her letter - means they are unlikely ever to reconcile.

She has so far not had a reply to her letter, the Sunday Times reported.

It comes after Meghan released a special Christmas edition of her Netflix lifestyle programme that was all about 'finding time to connect with the people we love' as the mother-of-two gave viewers a sneak-peek into her holiday celebrations. 

However, the 'Christmas naffness' that was released on December 3 was widely criticised by reviewers, who branded it an 'experiment in aggressive hospitality' and 'predictably insipid'.