Prince Harry has come under fire for comments he made about his son, Archie, at the Invictus Games last week.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, revealed that he had shown Archie footage of his late mother, Princess Diana, during her famous 1997 minefield walk. However, his remarks have sparked criticism from some royal commentators and online trolls.
Prince Harry showed son Archie footage of Princess Diana’s minefield walk
During the Invictus Games, Harry shared that he had shown Archie the footage of Diana walking through a minefield in Angola in 1997.
While speaking with the Canadian TV channel CTV, he explained that the opportunity arose during a conversation about landmines.
“Archie was asking about landmines so I was talking about how some of these guys were blown up,” he said.
“I think IEDs [Improvised explosive devices] are probably a little much at this point, but I found myself talking to him about mines—he’s five years old,” he continued.
“Interestingly, it gave me a chance to talk about my mum, his grandma, which I didn’t even really consider, so that became the outcome of the story for him.”
Prince Harry criticised over Princess Diana comments
Harry went on to say: “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.”
However, some royal fans were quick to criticise him, claiming the story wasn’t true.
“I refused to believe that Archie asked about landmines,” one person tweeted.
“Oh my days! What baloney!” another wrote.
Now, a supposed former Buckingham Palace employee has also condemned Harry’s comments, accusing him of seeking “sympathy votes.”
“I can’t believe Harry has trotted out this nonsense to try and get some sympathy votes,” they told RadarOnline.
Harry accused of ‘pathetic stunt’ at Invictus Games
They went on to add:
“Talk about exploitative or what! This conversation just didn’t take place,” they fumed. “Most five-year-olds want to talk about cartoons and snacks, not geo-politics and armed conflicts in Africa. It was a pretty pathetic and lame stunt.”
Royal Insider has reached out to Prince Harry’s representatives for comment.
Harry on feeling ‘closer’ to Diana after minefield walk
In both 2013 and 2019, Harry followed in his mother’s footsteps by recreating her minefield walk in Africa.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, he reflected on how doing the walk made him feel closer to his mother but also had a negative impact on his mental health.
“Taking up her cause, detonating a landmine myself, made me feel closer to her and gave me strength and hope,” he said.
“I was deeply frustrated to learn from the charity’s executives and fieldworkers that the job she’d spotlighted, indeed the entire global crusade my mother had helped launch, was now stalled.”