- "Everything seemed to come to a stop," Prince Harry says in Spare as he reveals the moment King Charles told him about Diana's 1997 car crash.
- The Duke of Sussex's bombshell memoir, in which he shares intimate details about his life in the firm, has already become the UK's fastest-selling non-fiction book ever.
- Elsewhere, he addresses speculation Charles may not be his "real father" - and the "unfunny" running joke the king would make about the paternity claims.
"Mummy was quite badly injured and taken to a hospital, darling boy," Prince Harry recalls in Spare of the moment King Charles told him of Princess Diana's 1997 car crash. "I'm afraid she didn't make it," Charles said – and "everything seemed to come to a stop" for Harry, who was just 12 years old when Diana died.
Prince Harry's Spare has already become the UK's fastest-selling non-fiction book ever as the Duke of Sussex reveals intimate details about his life in the spotlight – and damaging details about the British royal family.
He speaks of a physical altercation with his estranged brother and future king, Prince William, and calls Charles' current wife and queen, Camilla, the "villain"; Camilla was long-denigrated for the role she played in the breakup of Charles and Diana's marriage.
Diana had affairs of her own, however, and admitted to her relationship with James Hewitt.
In his memoir, Harry addresses speculation Hewitt, with his red hair, may be his "real father".
"One cause of this rumour was Major Hewitt's flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism," Harry says. "Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn't the child of Prince Charles. They couldn't get enough of this 'joke' for some reason. Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince's life was laughable."
Harry adds: "Never mind that my mother didn't meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born, the story was simply too good to drop."
Harry's strained relationship with his father, who he says he hasn't spoken to "for quite a while", is apparent in his memoir.
"Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire," Harry says in Spare of the "unfunny joke" Charles would make about Hewitt being his father.
"Who knows if I'm really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I'm even your real father? Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!" he recalls the king saying.
The reconciliation Harry speaks of in interviews amid the release of Spare, and his exit from the firm seems far out of reach as sources say the memoir has "rattled" the palace.
For Harry, it's bittersweet, as he says he's felt Diana's "presence" the past two years "more so than ever before", echoing a passage from his memoir when his visit to a psychic saw her tell him.
Elsewhere, Harry says in Spare: "Maybe she was omnipresent for the very same reason that she was indescribable - because she was light, pure and radiant light, and how can you really describe light?
"Even Einstein struggled with that one."