Prince Harry made the highly personal comments about being a dad to his children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet at a men’s mental health charity event in Melbourne today
Prince Harry has opened up about wanting to be a better parent than his father and said he “had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with” before having children.
The Duke of Sussex made the personal comments during a talk at an event about fatherhood hosted by the Movember charity on the second day of his and Meghan’s visit to Australia today. Harry visited the Whitten Oval in Melbourne, the training and administrative headquarters of Australian rules football club Western Bulldogs, where he met with supporters of the men’s mental health charity.
And speaking about his own experiences of being a dad to Prince Archie, six, and four-year-old Princess Lilibet, he spoke about the evolving roles of parents – and how each generation needed to be “an upgrade” as he alluded to his own parents, King Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
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But he insisted he was not “pointing the finger” at them, but explained even those with a perfect upbringing would still want to improve on this with their own children. He explained: “I see parenting evolving over time. Our kids are our upgrade. Not to say that I upgraded my dad or that my kids upgraded me, but the kids that we bring up in today’s world need to be upgraded.”
He added: “There’s no judgment, there’s no blame, there’s no pointing the finger. The reality is that – however you are parenting – that is a personal experience to you, you are going to want to improve on that. Obviously, 40 years ago, there wasn’t social media, so that’s just one example of conversations that are now happening in households between kids and parents that never existed between me and my parents.”
He also discussed his experience of therapy before his children were born, and said: “Certainly from a therapy standpoint, you want to be the best version of yourself for your kids. And I knew that I had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with, and therefore prepare myself to basically cleanse myself of the past.”
The duke said there could be a “disconnection” in the early days of fatherhood, adding “certainly I felt a disconnection because my wife was the one creating life, and I was there to witness it”. Wearing a taupe shirt and jeans, Harry said: “I think for many guys, you try to think about what service can I provide at this point, because my work here is done to some extent.
“And then when it comes back around again, I think the biggest tip that I was given, actually, from my therapist in the UK, was just be aware of how you feel once the baby is born. Every single time I went to work and I came back – if I was stressed, the moment that I held Archie, he would start crying.”
He added: “Fatherhood is the most important and sort of transformational role that a guy can ever, can ever move into.” Harry also told the audience of Movember supporters and their children that “I’m fortunate enough to be able to work from home”.
Giving a talk at a function room of the stadium, he said: “During Covid, it was like, well, this working from home thing is really not great when you have like small kids running around, jumping into your meetings.”
Harry then took to the Aussie rules football pitch and had a kickabout with Western Bulldogs players Tom Liberatore, Adam Treloar and Matthew Kennedy in his Chelsea boots, while discussing the differences between the sport and rugby.
The duke looked delighted and beamed as he ran across the pitch to have a kickabout with children, telling one boy: “Good kick man” and “it’s a slippery ball that”. Harry also witnessed John Pearce (John Wiggle) and Lachlan Gillespie (Lachy Wiggle) from Australian children’s music group The Wiggles perform on the pitch and gave a little wiggle of his own in response.
The second day of the trip has also seen Harry travel to Canberra without Meghan, where he wafted smoke as part of an Aboriginal ceremony at the Australian War Memorial The duke laid a wreath at the memorial and took part in the ceremony, where he wafted smoke from a fire pit containing burning leaves as members of the public watched on and police patrolled the site.
After being welcomed by Indigenous veterans, Harry listened to a Welcome to Country address by the memorial’s Indigenous liaison officer Michael Bell, a Ngunnawal/Gomeroi man. Wearing a suit and his military medals, the duke was shown a gallery dedicated to Captain Reg Saunders, who in 1945 became the first Indigenous Australian to be commissioned as an officer into the Australian Army.
Meghan did not carry out any public outings today – and is believed to have been conducting her own business meetings. It was later revealed she has filmed a segement to be a guest judge on Masterchef Australia. She is due to join Harry in Melbourne again tomorrow for a string of engagements before they head to Sydney on Friday.
