Prince Harry Says He 'Wouldn't Have Got to This Moment' with Prince William If Mom Diana Was Alive

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Prince Harry is opening up, yet again, about his relationship with his brother Prince William.

The Duke of Sussex appeared for a chat with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday's episode of The Late Show, the same day his groundbreaking memoir, Spare, was officially released. During his appearance, Harry discussed how things might be different if their mother, Princess Diana, did not die at the young age of 36.

"If your mother were still alive, do you ever think about how she might handle this moment?" Colbert asked Harry, referring to tension between him and the Prince of Wales.

"We wouldn't have got to this moment," Harry replied. "It's impossible to say where we would be now — where those relationships would be now — but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same."

When asked by Colbert if he calls upon his mother for help or thinks of the advice she may have given him, Harry said, "I've said quite a lot recently in different interviews that I've really felt the presence of my mom, especially in the last couple of years. And I detail in the book my brother and I talking at her grave and how he felt as though she had been with him for a long period of time and helped set him up with life and that he felt she was now moving over to me."

Harry added, "And I have felt her more in the last two years than I have in the last 30."

Colbert then asked Harry about his feelings on being 38, two years older than Diana was when she died in a Paris car crash on Aug. 31, 1997.

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"Well, she died at 36, and I was 36 when this all kicked off," Harry said, referencing when he and wife Meghan Markle decided to make a major change and distance themselves from the British monarchy. "January of 2020 was when my wife and I basically said, 'Enough, we can't cope. We can't deal with this. We need to carve out something different.' So that was an interesting overlap of time."

During Harry's interview with Colbert, the Spare author admitted that, for years after his mother's death, he would still believe Diana was alive.

"For many years I had dreams. I was convinced that she was still alive. I mean, I was 12 years old," Harry said. "I could not face the reality that she was gone."

When asked where he thought she was, Harry replied: "Hiding. Taking a break, plotting, planning, and then coming to get me and William to get us out of there because it was unbearable for her."

When Colbert pointed out that Harry also "removed" himself from a "toxic situation," the royal responded: "Yeah. And I'm glad ... Not before trying to make it work. Believe me, we tried. And we're still trying."

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During another recent interview with Anderson Cooper before the release of Spare, Harry said he has not recently spoken with his father, King Charles III, nor his older brother, William.

When Cooper asked how long it had been since the siblings spoke, Harry replied, "A while."

"Do you speak to your dad?" Cooper followed.

"We aren't — we haven't spoken for quite a while," Harry said. "Um, no, not recently."

Although Prince Harry said he doesn't see himself returning as a full-time working member of the royal family, he said the rift can be healed — but "the ball is very much in their court."

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Prince Harry's appearance on The Late Show is the fourth television interview surrounding the release of Spare. He appeared on Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes with Cooper, he spoke with ITV's Tom Bradby for an interview that aired Sunday in the U.K. and appeared with Good Morning America's Michael Strahan on Monday's show.

Amid days of intense reaction to his groundbreaking book, Harry opened up further about "the raw account" he offers in his candid book in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.

Jenna Jones Prince Harry on the cover of PEOPLE

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"I don't want to tell anyone what to think of it and that includes my family," he said. "This book and its truths are in many ways a continuation of my own mental health journey. It's a raw account of my life — the good, the bad and everything in between."

"My hope has been to turn my pain into purpose, so if sharing my experience makes a positive difference in someone's life, well, I can't think of anything more rewarding than that!" he said.