JFK Jr. Was Reluctant to Reach Out to Prince William and Prince Harry After Princess Diana’s Death

Prince William and Prince Harry stayed silent about their grief ever since the unfortunate car crash that took Princess Diana's life in 1997. However, more recently, they've begun to share their feelings about the loss of their mother. Meanwhile, according to the biography Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife once suggested he reach out to William and Harry after Diana's passing. Yet, as PEOPLE reported, John was hesitant to do so.

Author Elizabeth Beller wrote, “Carolyn tried to get John to call Princes William and Harry to give his condolences when it came out that Diana had hoped for her sons to emulate John’s modesty in the face of media obsession.” John was hesitant because he didn’t know them and felt their situations were very different. Beller wrote, “He had met [Princess Diana] once or twice. And the fact that she had died while being chased down by paparazzi, he was aware of the fact that their [he and Carolyn’s] lives were becoming overwrought with attention and he was upset.”

The author added, “Carolyn’s suggestion was lovely that he call them. He was, by all accounts, a lovely, gracious person, but maybe that moment was too difficult for him to be able to reach out and say something to someone who’s just lost their parent in a very public and dramatic way,” as reported by HOLA Magazine. Tragically, just two years after Diana's death, John also lost his life in a devastating plane crash in July 1999, along with his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren. Sen. Ted Kennedy said in a statement, "We are filled with unspeakable grief and sadness by the loss of John and Carolyn and Lauren Bessette."

He added, "John was a shining light in all our lives and the lives of the nation and the world that first came to know him as a little boy," as reported by PEOPLE. Meanwhile, the royal brothers have often talked about how their mother’s funeral impacted their mental health. In 2017, Harry said, “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”

In his memoir Spare, he wrote, “I remember feeling numb. I remember clenching my fists. I remember keeping a little piece of Willy in the corner of my eye because it gave me strength." Similar to Harry, William confessed that he felt completely numb after his mother's death. William also said that he was stuck “between me being Prince William and having to do my bit, versus the private William who just wanted to go into a room and cry, who’d lost his mother," as reported by The Independent. However, although they once shared their grief, William and Harry are now more distant than ever, both in their relationship and in terms of where they live.