Meghan Markle and her husband have often tried to shield their young children from the media. Prince Harry and Markle have yet to appear publicly with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The couple stated they are too young to be in the public sphere. However, every once in a while, Markle and Prince Harry release a video or photo in which the children are seen in the background or only the back of their heads are shown.
Prince Harry and the former actress sometimes share tidbits and cute updates about special moments and major milestones with the public.
The former soldier recently shared a story about Prince Archie that took a bizarre and alarming turn. Torn between shielding his son and educating him, Prince Harry found himself in a parental dilemma.
He revealed that he had a conversation about IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices, mines with Prince Archie, who is only 5 years old.
Prince Harry emphasized the educational aspect of the conversation. He stated: “It’s hard because kids don’t always ask the right questions. There’s no filter. You either shut it down right away, which I will never do, or you engage in the conversation and try to explain things. Archie was asking about landmines, so I was talking about how some of these guys [participating in the Invictus Games] were blown up.”
Prince Harry stated that he was unsure how to address the dangers of landmines to such a young child. However, he opted to, as a former soldier who witnessed the horrors of war, he took the following angle with the topic: “I think IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] are probably a little much at this point, but I found myself talking to him about mines when he was five years old.”
The chat with Prince Archie led to a poignant reflection on Princess Diana.
Prince Harry showed little Archie a powerful photo of his grandmother walking through a landmine.
Prince Harry shared the positive outcome of the conversation. He stated, “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 her out there doing her thing for landmines all those years ago. It produced a very interesting conversation, different from what I thought it would be.”
Princess Diana took the iconic photo in 1997 when she visited Angola as a guest of the International Red Cross.
The social media response was quick and brutal, with many asking why on earth a father would talk about these horrific and traumatizing events with such a young child.
One person asked why Prince Harry did not pick a lovely photo of his late mother doing charitable work with children to show Archie.
