The Duke of Sussex opened his memoir ‘Spare’ with a story about the royal family’s summer retreat, where he was staying when Princess Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997

Prince Harry revisited childhood memories of summers at Balmoral Castle in his memoir, ​​Spare.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, began his memoir, published in January 2023, with a reflection about what the Scotland sanctuary meant to him as a kid. 

Balmoral Castle and its 50,000-acre estate has been privately owned by the royal family since 1845 and is cherished up to the present day as a late-summer getaway for the family.

“To me, Balmoral was always simply Paradise. A cross between Disney World and some sacred Druid grove,” Prince Harry wrote in Spare. 

“I was always too busy fishing, shooting, running up and down ‘the hill’ to notice anything off about the feng shui of the old castle,” he continued, referring to legends about the residence. 

“What I’m trying to say, I was happy there,” he wrote. “In fact, it’s possible that I was never happier than that one golden summer day at Balmoral: August 30, 1997.”

Prince Harry went on to describe the royal family’s annual Balmoral respite as “its own micro-season” in the Scottish Highlands between the summer and fall, and that the first of their two week-stay there then was mostly spent outdoors. 

“My family lived to be outdoors, especially Granny, who got cross if she didn’t breathe at least an hour of fresh air each day,” the Duke of Sussex wrote in Spare, referencing matriarch Queen Elizabeth.

On the night of Aug. 30, 1997, Prince Harry said he and his older brother Prince William took baths, put on pajamas and tucked in before the TV, where footmen brought them dinner. 

“Under those fancy domes was just kiddie stuff,” Prince Harry wrote about the menu of fish fingers, cottage pies, roast chicken and green peas for him and Prince William, who were then 12 and 15, respectively. The princes were joined by Mabel, their nanny, and “Pa,” the future King Charles, popped by to see them before heading to dinner downstairs with the other adults.

Then-Prince Charles, who had been officially divorced from Princess Diana for a year, confirmed to Harry that “Mummy’s in Paris,” reminding his sons to “be good” and not stay up too late that evening.

The following day, Aug. 31, Prince Harry and Prince William would learn that their mother died following a car accident in Paris just 36 years old.

Recalling how his father gently relayed the news in his Balmoral bedroom, Prince Harry wrote in Spare that “everything seemed to come to a stop.”

The royal family would continue to spend the late summer at Balmoral in the years that followed. King Charles has continued the tradition through his reign upon his accession following the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022. The late Queen died at Balmoral, a place she was known to be incredibly fond of, at age 96.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive Aug. 12 cover story, sources said that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were snubbed of an invite to Balmoral Castle this summer. 

For years, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t been invited to the royal family’s summer gathering in the Scottish Highlands, sources tell PEOPLE. While Harry grew up going to Balmoral, it’s believed that Meghan, 43, has never been to the Scottish castle.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex relocated to her home state of California after stepping back from their royal roles in 2020. They haven’t been back to the U.K. with their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, since Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 amid an ongoing rift. 

The fissures within the family first became public in 2020, when Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back, and the strain that remains has been marked by blistering attacks and unresolved tensions. For Harry, no single issue is a greater sticking point than security, multiple well-placed insiders in his circle told PEOPLE.

Despite a positive meeting between the King and his younger son in February following the sovereign’s cancer diagnosis, their communication has since deteriorated. Those close to Prince Harry say the monarch no longer takes his son’s calls or responds to his letters. 

“He gets ‘unavailable right now,’” a friend of Harry’s told PEOPLE. “His calls go unanswered. He has tried to reach out about the King’s health, but those calls go unanswered too.”

The King was officially welcomed to Balmoral earlier this week with a small ceremony on Aug. 19. The royal sported a kilt as he inspected troops from Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and was reunited with their mascot, a Shetland pony known as Corporal Cruachan IV.

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Source: Los Angeles Times (edited)