The Duke of Sussex speaks at the annual WellChild Awards 2025 (Image: PA)
Prince Harry discussed the “challenging” relationship between siblings when he spoke to seriously ill youngsters at the 2025 WellChild Awards tonight. Harry cracked joked and delighted a young girl by challenging her to a balloon sword fight in a pre-ceremony reception with the prize winners and their families.
The conversation turned to sibling rivalry while chatting to Declan Bitmead, 17 – winner of the inspirational young person 15-18 years award. Harry quizzed him about family life, asking if he had siblings and the teenager replied he had a younger brother.
“Does he drive you mad?” asked the duke, and Declan replied “no, we get on fine” – and Harry quipped with a smile “you know what – siblings”. When told the 17-year-old, from Oxted in Surrey, and his brother went to the same school, the duke said “you’re at the same school, that sometimes makes it more challenging”.
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In Harry’s memoir Spare, he describes being shunned by his older brother, the Prince of Wales, when he first arrived at Eton. Recalling the incident in a promotional interview, the prince said: “At the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it.”
In a speech, Harry said attending the WellChild Awards is “a highlight of my year” as he marked the 20th anniversary of the prize in London.
The event, held to celebrate and recognise children showing remarkable bravery and resilience despite their complex medical needs, as well as the professionals that go the extra mile to care for them, concludes Harry’s first day back on homesoil.
He landed at Heathrow Airport on Monday morning before travelling to Windsor to pay private respects at the final resting place of his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth, on the third anniversary of her death.
The Duke last visited the UK in May when he lost a long-running legal battle with the Home Office over his security arrangements.
He is staying for four days to carry out a series of public engagements, as well as private meetings with the charities and patronages he remains affiliated with, despite no longer being a working royal. It is not known whether he will meet the King, who is currently in Balmoral, during his stay.
Prince Harry spoke about the first time he attended the WellChild Awards (Image: PA)
Harry arrived at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, which overlooks Hyde Park and is less than two miles from Buckingham Palace, with a beaming smile as he marks his first official engagement of his four-day stay in the UK.
He spent around six hours at the WellChild event, as he met each of the winners and their families at a pre-ceremony reception before presenting one of the awards and delivering a speech.
Harry, who has been patron of WellChild since 2007, hailed the “courage, resilience of the seriously ill children and the “extraordinary love of the families and carers who never stop showing up”.
Reminiscing the first WellChild awards he attended 18 years ago, the Duke said: “I walked into the room, and within about three minutes I realised two things: the love and energy in the room was palpable, so too was the unpredictability! And second, that I was completely hooked on it all. This night has been a highlight of my year ever since and it’s all because of you guys – these children, this cause, and our Wellchild community.”
He commented on the “real impact” the charity has, noting that 311 children have been awarded for their bravery since its inception and 53 WellChild nurses make “an enormous difference” to families.
The Duke of Sussex play fights using swords made from modelling balloons (Image: PA)
Concluding his speech, Harry said: “More than ever, WellChild’s mission must be our shared priority. Tonight, I’d ask each of you to think about how you can play your part, whether through support, awareness, or action, to help advance this crucial work.”
During the ceremony, the prince presented the Award for Inspirational Child (aged 4-6) to Esmée McGlinchey, six, from Stoke-on-Trent for her incredible bravery in the face of her medical challenges.
Born three months premature, she has complex conditions and has had 35 surgeries on her brain, lungs and bowel.
Her mum, Toni, describes her as an “absolute warrior of a little girl” who has shown “immense strength” despite her health challenges.
Other awards went to Helen Tooby, a nurse from West Yorkshire, who was recognised for combining clinical excellence with genuine empathy in her role as a WellChild Nurse and 13-year-old Grace Tutt from Kent, who was honoured for her extraordinary courage in rebuilding her life after a serious road accident.
During the pre-ceremony reception, Harry spent time chatting with each of the winners and their families and even engaged in a play swordfight with balloons with nine-year-old Gwen Foster.
Prince Harry discusses siblings with Declan Bitmead (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The little girl, from Horley, presented him with tiny football shirts of her favourite teams for his children, Wigan Athletic for Lillibet, aged four, and six-year-old Archie was gifted a Brighton and Hove Albion top.
He made Declan, who suffered permanent sight impairment and lost 96% of his skin after developing a rare and life-threatening reaction to a common tonsillitis treatment, smile by making light of his own appearance.
After being told by the schoolboy he did not have much sight, the prince said he was lucky not to see him as: “I’m bald and ginger and worst of all I’ve got a ginger beard – you’re thinking phew.”
When he chatted to Grace Tutt, 13, from Sevenoaks – who is wheelchair-bound after a bus crash, the Special Recognition winner turned the tables after his flurry of questions and asked the duke for Netflix recommendations.
Harry said he and wife Meghan, who live in California after stepping down as working royals, watch political thriller Hostage together and he also enjoys the reality TV show Love Is Blind.
In an interview with a past WellChild winner who is hoping to break into television, Harry marked the 20th anniversary of the awards by saying: “I have always said for many years that I still have a child inside of me, and I think all of us do, and being amongst these kids brings that out of me.
“I think out of all of the qualities that these kids have, without question, their resilience – top still.”