Prince Harry has been seen speaking publicly for the first time in months, sharing his experience of how grief can “consume you” in a poignant statement.
The Duke of Sussex joined Nikki Scott, founder of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, for a frank conversation about what it means to be a child who loses a parent.
Prince Harry at Scotty’s Little Soldiers
Harry lost his mother when he was just 12 years old, after Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, and he spoke very candidly about what it’s like to be a child who has just received the worst news of his life.
In his chat with Nikki, Harry spoke openly about childhood grief, saying that when he was twelve years old he didn’t fully understand how to get through the experience.
He spoke at length with Nikki about how children navigate grief and shared how he really struggled with that experience at such a young age.
She told Nikki, “you convince yourself that the person that you’ve lost wants you to be sad for as long as possible to prove that they’re missed. Then there’s this realisation of ‘they must want me to be happy.'”
He also mentioned how it’s impossible to keep grief repressed. You just have to feel it.
He said, “you can’t suppress it forever, it’s not sustainable. It will eat away at you inside.”
Nikki founded Scotty’s Little Soldiers in memory of her late husband, Corporal Lee Scott, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Meghan Markle’s husband began opening up to her after she shared how heartbreaking it was to have to tell her children that their father had been killed.
She said that the horrible feeling of having to change her children’s reality forever inspired her to create a community for people who had lost their fathers.
She said, “it makes you want to bring that community back. We can’t fix what happened, we can’t bring your parents back, but we can make sure you have the very best support.”
Harry said, “what you’ve done is incredible. It is, I mean, truly inspirational.”
Harry also served in Afghanistan twice. First as an air traffic controller and then as a helicopter pilot.
The youngest son of King Charles III, he has a history of working with military charities. One of his most public roles is as patron of the Invictus Games, a sports competition for injured service members.
Now, his involvement with Scotty’s Little Soldiers will bring much hope to children facing a seemingly impossible path.