It’s been a busy week for the Duke of Sussex as the Duchess of Sussex gave birth to their son, Archie, earlier this week. Travelling to The Netherlands to launch the official Invictus Games countdown, the Prince opened up about fatherhood and his mum, the late Diana Princess of Wales.
Speaking with former solider Dennis van der Stroon, the two were able to talk on a variety of topics including having their first child.
“At a certain moment, we just got connected on this level,” Dennis said. “We talked-about how my wife, Mireille, is 20 weeks pregnant with our first child, a girl, and he told me how special it was that his son has just been born.”
And Dennis says that being a new dad clearly isn’t slowing the Duke down. “Harry talked about how having a small child was his new focus and new goal and I told him how a couple of months ago, I was struggling with my mental health but my wife’s pregnancy has given me a goal.”
Later on in conversation, the two found another tie between them, loosing a mum. Prince Harry lost his mum, Diana, the Princess of Wales when she died from injuries following a car crash in 1997. For Dennis, he had lost his mother to chronic lung disease.
“I told Harry about my mother and we talked about our shared experience of missing a mum,” Dennis shared.
“He said missing a mother is like missing some kind of security, how you need that as a son and it falls away when you lose your mother. He said he meets a lot of people in his work who have lost a mother, father, sister, brother or relatives and when he hears their story, as he hear my story, he said he doesn’t feel so alone.”
Before their chat ended, Dennis says the Duke shared some parenting advice that he has learned, “…he also told me not to make too many plans and that there’s no way you can plan for when the baby arrives.”
Baby Sussex or, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on Monday 6th May.
