Royal photographer Arthur Edwards recalls refusing to shoot a grieving Prince Harry

Arthur Edwards, one of the best-known royal photographers, says he refused to take a picture of a grieving 12-year-old Prince Harry after Princess Diana's death. He told HELLO! that Harry's face had creased up as he read letters about his mother, and that he would not photograph it.

Edwards has spent five decades photographing the royal family. He has now written about those years in a book, Cup of Tea, Arthur? My Extraordinary 50 Years Photographing the Royal Family, and he has talked about them on HELLO!'s A Right Royal Podcast.

On the refusal, he said nobody was going to publish a picture of Harry's grief anyway. Prince William and Prince Harry were 15 and 12 when they went to look at the floral tributes, the flowers left by members of the public, after Diana died in 1997.

Edwards was positioned opposite Westminster Abbey when Diana's funeral cortege, the procession of vehicles carrying her coffin, passed by. He has described covering the funeral as probably the worst job he ever did.

In a separate interview, The Telegraph reported that Edwards has had "some storming rows" with King Charles. On the podcast he also talked about confrontations with the King, and about an awkward encounter with the then Prince Charles. His first photograph of the royal family was of the then Prince Charles.

Asked about his regrets, Edwards named two, according to Tatler. One is that he has worked too hard. The other is that he photographed Princess Diana while she was pregnant.

Taken together, the book and the podcast give a long, personal account of a working life spent at the edge of royal events.