Prince Harry has written about the moment he found out that his mother, Princess Diana, had been in a car accident.
It is among a number of revelations in his new book in which he writes about asking his father not to remarry; how many people he killed in Afghanistan; cocaine use and how he lost his virginity.
Writing about his mother’s death, he said he was woken up by his father who “sat on the edge of the bed and put his hand on my knee”.
He says Charles said: “My dear son, mum has had a car accident.
“There have been complications. Mum has been seriously injured and has been taken to hospital, my dear son.”
The book added: “He would always call me ‘dear son’, but he was repeating it a lot.
“He spoke quietly. It gave me the impression he was in shock.”
Diana died in 1997 following a car crash in Paris.
Harry admits he took cocaine – live updates
The book Spare was mistakenly put on shelves in Spain, five days ahead of the official release date – but Sky News has obtained a copy.
‘Don’t remarry’
Prince Harry also says in his new book that he asked his father not to marry Camilla.
The Duke of Sussex also talks about the moment he was told his mother had a car accident, amongst a number of other revelations.
Speaking about his father marrying Camilla, the prince writes: “That’s why when the question came, Willy and I promised our father that we would welcome Camilla to the family. The only thing we asked for in return was that he didn’t marry her. ‘You don’t need to get married again’ we asked him.”
Harry killed 25 people in Afghanistan
In Spare, the duke also said that he killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan.
Writing about his two tours of duty, the Prince, who spent 10 years in the Army, said: “So my number: twenty-five. It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either. Naturally, I would have preferred not to have that figure on my military resume, or in my head, but I would also have preferred to live in a world without the Taliban, a world without war.”
In the book, he also admitted that he took cocaine, spoke about how he lost his virginity and claimed his brother physically attacked him during a row over his marriage to Meghan Markle.
Speaking about using cocaine, Prince Harry said “it wasn’t very fun, and it didn’t make me feel especially happy”.
Harry described losing his virginity as “a humiliating episode with an older lady”.
He said it was “with an older lady, who loved horses very much and treated me like a young stallion”.
The excerpt read: “‘I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back… one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub. No doubt someone had seen us’.”
