'After my mum died just before my 13th birthday, I was like, I don't want this job. I don't want this role. It killed my mum'

PRINCE Harry said yesterday that he felt “lost, betrayed, or completely powerless” at various points throughout his life in an emotionally charged speech during his four-day tour of Australia.

- BY EMILY FERGUSON Royal Editor

Delivering a keynote address at a leadership summit in Melbourne, the Duke of Sussex shared his personal reflections on grief and the pressure to pretend everything was OK to avoid letting anyone down.

He also revealed that after his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died when he was 12 in 1997, he wanted to quit his royal role.

Speaking to Australian business leader and former politician Brendan Nelson after his speech at the InterEdge Summit, Harry, 41, said: “After my mum died just before my 13th birthday I was like, I don’t want this job.

“I don’t want this role — wherever this is headed, I don’t like it’.

“It killed my mum and I was very much against it and I stuck my head in the sand for years and years.”

But the prince’s perspective changed when he realised the good that could come from his role and he asked himself, “What would my mum want me to do?”