The Duke has spoken about his he thought his mum was still alive (Picture: Getty/ Rex)

Prince Harry has opened up about how he was convinced his mum was ‘still alive’ after her death.

In the tell-all interview with Tom Bradby the Duke said he thought Diana was in ‘hiding’ after the car crash that killed her and Dodi Al-Fayed in Paris in 1997.

Former Royal reporter, Mr Bradby, said to Harry: ‘One of the things that really surprised me in the book is the way you talk about genuinely appearing to have half-convinced yourself that your mother was in fact still alive and in hiding.’

To which Harry replied: ‘Yeah’

Tom goes on: ‘I mean, like, you talk about seeing her in your dreams and saying, “Mummy, Mummy, is that you?’

‘Mm-hmm,’ The Prince replies.

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Tom replies and said: ‘I mean, it, it, it’s a haunting description of really, post-traumatic stress disorder really, isn’t it?  I mean, that’s what, that’s what the whole early part of this book is.

Harry said: ‘Yeah, but I would, I, I refer to it as post-traumatic stress injury because I don’t, I’m not a person with a disorder. I know I’m not.’

Tom added: ‘But you bottle it up for years, don’t you? I mean, you don’t talk about it like sometimes you say your brother, you, you know, really wanted to talk about it, but you couldn’t.’

The Prince was convinced his mum was still alive (Picture: Getty)

He has spoken out in a tell-all interview (Picture: ITV)

The tell-all interview is ahead of his book release tomorrow (Picture: ITV)

Harry replied: ‘Um, I cried once, um, at the burial. Um, and, you know, I go into detail about talking how, you know, how strange it was and how actually there was some guilt that I, that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace and the 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother.

‘And there we were shaking people’s hands, smiling. I’ve seen the videos, right? I’ve looked back, I look back over it all.

‘And the wet hands that we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet.

‘But it was all the tears that they were wiping away. So that was very strange for us, as, you know, youngsters, you know, 12 and 14 at the time and seeing this outpouring of emotion from millions, hundreds of millions of people, and everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum.

‘And the two closest people to her, the two most-loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment.’

He also speaks about the moment he was told by his father, that his mother had died.

Harry said he was told in Balmoral Castle and his father sat down on the edge of his bed.

He says: ‘He sat down on the edge of the bed, he put a hand on my knee. “Darling boy, mummy’s been in a car crash.’

He also speak about how the King told him of his mother’s death (Picture: Getty)

Harry has opened up about his relationship with his mum (Picture: Tim Graham Photo Library)

‘I remember thinking, ‘Crash okay? But she’s alright, yes?’ I vividly remember that thought flashing through my mind and I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed, Mummy was alright, and I remember him not doing that.

‘There was then a shift internally. I began silently pleading with Pa, or God, or both, “No, no, no.”  Pa looked down into the folds of the old quilts and blankets and sheets. “There were complications. Mummy was quite badly injured and taken to hospital, darling boy.”

‘He always called me darling boy, but he was saying it quite a lot now. 

‘His voice was soft. He was in shock, it seemed. “Oh, hospital?” “Yes, with a head injury.” Did he mention paparazzi? Did he say she’d been chased? I don’t think so. I can’t swear to it but probably not. The paps were such a problem for Mummy, for everyone, it didn’t need to be said.

‘I thought again, ‘injured but she’s okay, she’s been taken to hospital, they’ll fix her head, and we’ll go and see her. Today, tonight at the latest’. “They tried, darling boy. I’m afraid she didn’t make it.”

Um, you know, thinking back to when I was 12 years old, sitting in that sunken bed, um, at Balmoral Castle, I went, I took myself back to that moment and tried to remember as much as possible.

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‘You know, my father coming in, in his dressing gown and sharing that news with me, only now as part of writing the book, that I really think about how many hours he’d been awake.

‘And the compassion that I have for him, as a parent having to sit with that for many, many hours, ringing up friends of his, trying to work out, how the hell do I break this to my two sons? 

‘And I never want to be in that position, part of the reason why we are here now, I never ever want to be in that position. I don’t want history to repeat itself. I do not want to be a single dad. And I certainly don’t want my children to have a life without a mother or a father.’

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The Prince has spoken out about how he suffered post-traumatic stress after the death of his mother.