Prince Harry opens up about grief and bereavement
“You convince yourself that the person you’ve lost wants you, or you need to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that they are missed,” said the Duke of Sussex, whose mother, Princess Diana, died when he was 12 years old.
“But then there’s this realization of, no, they must want me to be happy,” he told Nikki Scott, founder of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, in a video released by the charity Thursday.
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. She was 36 years old.
Harry went on to underline the importance of talking about emotions during the grieving process.
“That’s the hardest thing, especially for kids, I think, which is, ‘I don’t want to talk about it because it will make me sad, but once realizing that if I do talk about it, and I’m celebrating their life, then actually, things become easier,’” he said.
Harry is a global ambassador for Scotty’s Little Soldiers, and sat down for a conversation with Scott ahead of Armed Forces Day on June 29.
Scott told the duke about the moment she had to tell her son, Kai, that his father, Cpl. Lee Scott, had been killed while serving in Afghanistan.
“It was the worst... How do you tell a 5-year-old this,” she said, recalling the feeling that she had “shattered his world” on that day in July 2009.
Scott went on to found the charity in 2010 to help other bereaved military children.
GET OUR FREE ROYAL NEWSLETTER
• Sign up to CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.
Each year, 2,100 children lose a parent who served in the UK military, according to Scotty’s Little Soldiers.
The charity currently supports more than 680 members and aims to support more than 1,000 people each year by 2030.
Harry praised Scott for her “incredible” work in setting up the charity.
“It is truly inspirational. I’m really honoured and privileged to be part of Scotty’s now and I really look forward to us doing everything we can to bring in more people, more interest, raise more funds and be able to get the message out there to get more kids the support they so desperately need,” he added in a press release.
A video of their full conversation can be watched on the charity’s website.
- Harry, as a global ambassador for Scotty's Little Soldiers, emphasized the importance of discussing emotions during the grieving process, highlighting the need for children to talk about their loss, not just to avoid sadness, but to celebrate life, which can make things easier in the long run, especially for those in Europe and around the world who have also experienced such loss.
- The Duke of Sussex, in his role as a global ambassador, acknowledges the incredible work done by Nikki Scott in setting up Scotty's Little Soldiers, a charity that brings support to the 2,100 children in the United Kingdom alone who lose a parent who served in the military, realizing that such support is crucial not just for children in Europe, but for kids and families across the world.
