Prince Harry fights back tears in video talk
Prinz Harry was twelve years old when his mother, Princess Diana, died in Paris. Now, the 39-year-old is advocating for children with similar fates through the British charitable organization "Scotty's Little Soldiers," which supports children who have lost parents in military deployments. In recent weeks, there had been little news about Prince Harry and his wife, Duchess Meghan. However, the 39-year-old has returned to Instagram as a representative of the organization. In a video posted on Instagram, Prince Harry and the founder, Nikki Scott, discuss their experiences with grief.
Scott recounts how she had to tell her then five-year-old son Kai about his father's death. She remembers it as "the worst thing" she had ever done, with tears in her eyes: "I shattered his world. After that, nothing was the same as before." At that time, she thought, "How many other children have lost a parent?" This idea, as she admits, led her to found "Scotty's Little Soldiers."
"That's not cheesy," interrupts a visibly moved Prince Harry, struggling for composure. He knows all too well what it's like when a parent suddenly dies. "What you've done is incredible. It's really inspiring. I feel really honored and privileged to be part of 'Scotty's'," he says, wiping away tears and embracing his interlocutor.
Prinz Harry kept his grief hidden
On the topic of grief, Prince Harry has much to say. "You can't keep it suppressed for too long, that's not sustainable. It will consume you from within," he knows. He himself was only twelve years old when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
For children, it is particularly difficult, the 39-year-old finds. They often don't want to talk about death because it makes them sad, a feeling he is familiar with from his own experience after his mother's death: "But when I realize that I'm talking about it and celebrating their life, it becomes easier." As a child, one imagines that the person one has lost wants one to be sad for as long as possible to prove that one misses them. Later, one comes to the realization that the deceased person would much rather wish happiness for their loved ones.
In the Netflix documentary "Heart of Invictus," Prince Harry had already spoken about how he had dealt with his mother's death. "The loss of my mother at such a young age, the trauma I had, was never conscious to me. It was never addressed, and I had not really spoken about it and suppressed it," he recalled. Prince Harry had made an effort not to show his feelings openly. In earlier interviews, he had mentioned crying only once, at his mother's funeral.
- Following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, at the age of twelve, Prince Harry has experienced the challenging consequences of grief, particularly for children.
- In an attempt to hide his feelings, Prince Harry suppressed his grief after his mother's death, as he revealed in the Netflix documentary "Heart of Invictus."
- Despite his initial struggle to openly express his grief, Prince Harry now acknowledges the importance of discussing the loss and its impact, as he did in the "Scotty's Little Soldiers" Instagram video with Nikki Scott.
