Prince William: Queen shielded us from public grief after death of Diana

The 91-year-old monarch has faced some criticism in the past for staying on at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in the days after the death of Diana, away from the public outpouring of grief in London.

"At the time, you know, my grandmother wanted to protect her two grandsons, and my father as well. Our grandmother deliberately removed the newspapers, and things like that, so there was nothing in the house at all. So we didn't know what was going on," Prince William says in a BBC documentary commemorating his mother's 20th death anniversary to be aired on Sunday. "I think it was a very hard decision for my grandmother to make. She felt very torn between being a grandmother to William and Harry and her Queen role," he tells the makers of 'Diana, 7 Days'. The documentary, by the award-winning film-maker Henry Singer, charts the week between Diana's death in the car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997 and her Westminster Abbey funeral through interviews with politicians, family and friends. William and Harry have taken part in a series of high- profile and candid interviews in the run-up to Diana's 20th death anniversary next week. "It was a case of 'how do we let the boys grieve in privacy but at the same time when is the right time for them to put on their prince hats and carry out duties," said William's brother Harry.