Harry also shared that he feels Diana continues to guide him as he navigates parenthood.
As parents to two beautiful children, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are doing everything they can to let their babies know that they are loved and appreciated. Only 12 years old when his mom died in a car accident in Paris, France, in 1997, Harry knows all too well the crucial role a parent plays in a child's life.
Now, Harry makes sure to let his kids know about what a great woman his mother was. Harry explained how he does that when he spoke to TODAY while in the Netherlands for the 2022 Invictus Games.
“Very much so,” the Duke of Sussex said when asked if he tells his son Archie, 2, about Diana. “I don’t tell him all the stuff that happened, but certainly, ‘This is Grandma Diana,’ and (I) brought a couple photos up in the house.”
Harry, 37, also shared that he feels Diana continues to guide him as he navigates parenthood. “For me, (her presence is) constant,” he explained. “It has been over the last two years — more so than ever before.”
He went on to say that he believed his late mother played a similar role for his brother, Prince William, in the early years of his parenthood, too.
"It’s almost as though she’s done her bit with my brother and now she’s very much back to helping me," Prince Harry noted. "Got him set up, now she’s helping me set up. That’s what it feels like, you know? He’s his kids. I’ve got my kids. You know, circumstances are obviously different. But I feel her presence in almost everything that I do now."
"She's watching over us," he told host Hoda Kotb during the interview. And when Hoda mentioned that his mother would be proud of him, Harry chuckled and agreed, saying, "I’m sure she is."
The fact that Harry still talks about his mother every chance he gets shows that even though it has been years since her demise, he is still processing the grief.
In a book written to support grieving children and young people who are dealing with the pain of bereavement after losing a loved one during the pandemic, titled Hospital by the Hill, Harry wrote a moving foreword. He mentions how he hopes the book will provide "comfort in knowing you are not alone."
The book, written by Chris Connaughton and illustrated by Fay Troote, tells the story of a young person coming to terms with the loss of their mother, who had been working on the frontline at a hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to PEOPLE, he writes, "When I was a young boy I lost my mum. At the time I didn't want to believe it or accept it, and it left a huge hole inside of me. I know how you feel, and I want to assure you that over time that hole will be filled with so much love and support. We all cope with loss in a different way, but when a parent goes to heaven, I was told their spirit, their love and the memories of them do not. They are always with you and you can hold onto them forever. I find this to be true."
References:
https://people.com/royals/prince-harry-writes-foreword-book-children-coping-loss
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Steve Wood
