Prince Harry’s conversation with his son, Prince Archie, about the Invictus Games went in a “different” direction, turning to a discussion about Princess Diana’s important work.
During the 2025 Invictus Games, the Duke of Sussex spoke with CTV about explaining the adaptive sporting competition for sick,
wounded and injured service personnel and veterans to his children,
5-year-old son Prince Archie and 3-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet.
“You either shut it down straight away, which I would never do, or you engage in the conversation and you try to explain things,” Prince Harry, 40, said. “Archie was asking about landmines, so I was talking about how some of these guys [Invictus Games participants] were blown up.”
He continued, “I think IEDs are probably a bit too much at this point, but I found myself talking to him about mines when he was 5 years old.”
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Prince Harry; Princess Diana in 1997. Photo:
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
The conversation then turned to Princess Diana, who famously walked through a landmine field in Angola that was being cleared by the Halo Trust to raise awareness of the issue in 1997.
“Interestingly, it gave me a chance to talk about my mum, his grandma, which I didn’t even really consider,” Harry said. “That became the outcome of the story for him. He wanted to see videos and photographs of his Grandma Diana out doing her thing for landmines all those years ago.”
“It produced a very interesting conversation between me and him, different to what I thought it would be,” Prince Harry said.
Twenty-two years after Princess Diana’s historic visit, Prince Harry continued her work to clear dangerous landmines around the world by making a similar walk. Sporting protective gear and a visor like his mother, the Duke of Sussex visited a Halo Trust mine site in Angola in September 2019.
He also visited the area where his mother walked, which is now a safe and thriving community. A tree, dubbed the Diana Tree, marks the spot where she was photographed in 1997.
“It has been emotional retracing my mother’s steps along this street 22 years on and to see the transformation that has taken place, from an unsafe and desolate place into a vibrant community of local businesses and colleges,” Harry said at the time.
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In the AppleTV+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See, Harry said, “I got a photo of her in [Archie’s] nursery, and it was one of the first words that he said — apart from ‘mama,’ ‘papa,’ it was then ‘grandma.’ Grandma Diana. It’s the sweetest thing, but at the same time, it makes me really sad because she should be here.”
Prince Harry also speaks about his work for the Invictus Games with his kids.
“I showed Archie a video of wheelchair basketball and rugby from the Invictus Games in Sydney, and he absolutely loved it,” Harry previously told PEOPLE.
“I showed him how some were missing legs and explained that some had invisible injuries, too,” the former British Army captain added. “Not because he asked but because I wanted to tell him. Kids understand so much, and to see it through his eyes was amazing because it’s so unfiltered and honest.”