Prince Harry, who was only 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, tragically died in a car crash, has expressed remorse for not openly discussing her death for many years.

Prince Harry, who was 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash, has expressed regret that he did not talk openly about her death for many years.In comments that were broadcast on Monday by the BBC, Harry, 31, said that he had not discussed his mother’s death until three years ago, and regretted it. He made the comments last Thursday while hosting a barbecue for a mental health charity. The event was attended by star athletes, including the Olympic runner Kelly Holmes and the soccer player Rio Ferdinand.

“I really regret not ever talking about it,” he said, referring to his mother’s death in Paris in August 1997. “For the first 28 years of my life, I never talked about it.” He added: “It is O.K. to suffer, but as long as you talk about it. It is not a weakness. Weakness is having a problem, and not recognizing it, and not solving that problem.”

The prince went on to say that mental illness could affect anyone. “I think the key message here is that everyone can suffer from mental health issues, whether you’re a member of the royal family, whether you’re a soldier, whether you’re a sports star,” he said.Britons mourned Diana’s death in a paroxysm of grief that deeply touched the nation and elicited a rare, and some say belated, display of public emotion by Queen Elizabeth II. At the time, people across the world were struck by the image of the two young and stoic princes, forced to endure the loss of their mother under the frenzied glare of the global media spotlight.

Prince Harry, who is fifth in line to the throne, served on active duty in the British armed forces for 10 years, including two tours in Afghanistan, where he was a co-pilot of an Apache attack helicopter and a weapons officer. In recent years, he has worked to shed his image as something of a mischief-maker and playboy. He apologized in 2005 for wearing a swastika armband to a friend’s costume party, and in 2013 he said he had “let my family down,” after tabloids published images of the naked prince partying in Las Vegas.