Prince Harry may be estranged from his older brother, Prince William – however, it appears that they have found common ground when it comes to parenting their children, according to a royal commentator.
The Duke of Sussex recently revealed that he has had conversations with his son, Prince Archie, five, about his late mother, Princess Diana, and her landmark minefield walk in Angola after being asked by him about landmines.
He said in a conversation with CTV’s Omar Sachedina: “It’s hard because kids don’t always ask the right questions, so you either shout it down right away, which I will never do, or you engage in the conversation and try to explain things.”
The prince went on to say that he’s been candid with his son about the reality of landmines.
He said: “Archie was asking about landmines so I talked about how some of these guys were blown up. I found myself talking to him about mines when he was five years old.
“Interestingly it gave me a chance to talk about my mum, his grandma, which I didn’t even really consider. He wanted to see videos and photographs of his grandma Diana out doing her thing with land mines all those years ago.”
Hello’s royal editor Emily Nash compared Harry’s comments to what the Prince of Wales said in a documentary about homelessness last year.
She said in a new episode of a Right Royal Podcast: “Harry was asked about how to communicate to children about amputees and veterans…so it’s interesting how it’s come full circle.
“It reminds me of Prince William and the conversations he says he’s had with the children.
“They’re on different continents but it’s clearly something that has been drilled into them growing up, that it’s so important to have their children aware.
“They’re both honouring their mother in a really similar way.”
Speaking in Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, the future King said: “When you are that small you are just curious and trying to work out what’s going on. You ask the question ‘why are they sitting there?’
“My mother would talk to us a bit about why they were there, and it definitely made a really big impact.”
Asked about when he will talk to his children about homelessness, he said: “I am probably already doing it on the school run. The first few times I thought ‘do I bring this up or should I wait to see if they notice?’ Sure enough, they did.
“They were sort of in silence when I said what was going on.”