The Duchess of Sussex kneeled and put her palms on the grave of Diana, Princess of Wales and asked her for “clarity and guidance” on the 20th anniversary of her death, the Duke of Sussex has said.

Harry said in his controversial memoir Spare that he and Meghan rowed out to his mother’s final resting place on an island on the Althorp estate in 2017.

After some time reflecting, he sensed Meghan wanted to a moment to herself by the site in Northamptonshire.

“When I returned, she was on her knees with her eyes closed and her palms flat against the stone,” Harry wrote, adding that she told him she had asked Diana for “clarity and guidance”, the MailOnline reported.

The memoir, which is dedicated to Diana, Meghan and his children Archie and Lili, has repeated references to the princess, with a deep seam of unresolved grief running throughout it, according to the BBC.

Harry refers to his mother as mummy and said his father, now the King, did not hug him when he sat on his bed and told him Diana had died.

The duke also claimed that a woman with “powers” relayed him a message from Diana saying he is “living the life she couldn’t”.

He visited the woman after friends recommended her, and she told him his mother is “with” him and that she knows he is “looking for clarity” and “feels” his confusion.

In clips of an interview promoting his book with Good Morning America, Harry said Diana would have been “sad” about her sons’ fractured relationship.

“I have felt the presence of my mum more so in the last two years than I have in the last 30,” he told the US show.

The princess died in a car crash in Paris when the duke was just 12 years old.

In the couple’s engagement interview in 2017, Harry and Meghan both spoke of how Diana was still with them.

Harry, who proposed to Meghan with a ring made from diamonds from the princess’s personal collection, said: “You know, with the ring and with everything else that’s going on, I’m sure she’s with us, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else.”

Meghan echoed his thoughts, saying: “She’s with us.”