Prince Harry on the moment his father told him Princess Diana had died

Prince Harry is sharing new details about the day he learned that his mom Princess Diana had died.

Now 38, Harry was 12 years old when Diana died following a car crash in Paris in 1997, which also killed her lover at the time, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul. She was 36 years old.

The father of two opens up about the tragic day in his new memoir, “Spare,” officially published on Jan. 10, but released early in Spain. Per a Spanish language version obtained and translated NBC News, Harry reveals that his father King Charles III broke the news to him. At the time, Harry was at Balmoral, the royal family's estate in Scotland, along with his older brother Prince William, then 15.

The excerpt, which NBC News translated into English, describes how King Charles sat his 12-year-old son down on the bed and revealed that Diana had sustained head injuries in the accident that weren’t likely to improve. (Diana was transported to Paris’ Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital while she was alive, and later died).

Harry says his father called him “my dear son” during the difficult conversation, but says he did not embrace him.

So far, both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have declined to comment on the book. A representative for Prince Harry also declined to comment.

This isn’t the first time that Harry has spoken out about the way he learned about his mother’s death.

During a 2017 BBC documentary titled, “Diana, 7 Days,” Harry shared another outlook on the way his father broke the news to him, saying his father was “there” for him and his brother.

“One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died,” he said.

“How you deal with that? I don’t know. But you know, he was there for us. He was the one out of two left, and he tried to do his best and to make sure that we were protected and looked after,” he continued. “But ... he was going through the same grieving process as well.”

In a 2017 ITV documentary titled, “Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy,” Harry recalled the last phone call he ever had with Diana.

“If I’d known that that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother the things that I would — the things I would have said to her. All I do remember regretting for the rest of my life how short that phone call is,” he said. “Looking back now, I have to live with that for the rest of my life.”

Princess Diana’s death is one of many topics that Harry covers in “Spare.” In a separate book excerpt that has been translated by NBC News, Harry claims that he had a violent encounter during an argument with his brother, Prince William, in 2019. Harry says the fight began after William complained after Harry’s romance with his now wife, the former Meghan Markle.

“He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me,” he writes.

Harry continues, “I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”

The prince, who recently released a Netflix docuseries with his wife the Duchess of Sussex, also shares private details of his life, including drug use and the loss of his virginity.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com