Prince Harry has stated that he has few childhood memories of his mother, Princess Diana.
“My childhood, I remember, was filled with laughter, filled with happiness, and filled with adventure,” Harry said during an interview in episode one of his new Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan,” which premiered on Thursday. “I don’t have many early memories of my mum. It was almost like, internally, I sort of blocked them out.”
“But I always remember her laugh, her cheeky laugh. Her always saying to me, ‘You can get in trouble, just don’t get caught,'” he continued. “I’ll always be that cheeky person inside.”
Earlier in the episode, news clips showed a swarm of royal admirers waiting outside St Mary’s Hospital in London to hear the announcement that Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles had given birth to their second child, a boy called Harry. “Harry & Meghan” footage also shows Diana urging journalists to leave her family alone on a ski vacation in 1995, and paparazzi following William and Harry around after her death. In 1997, she was slain in Paris as her limousine drove away from the paparazzi.
“The majority of my memories are of being swarmed by paparazzi,” he said. “Rarely did we have a holiday without someone with a camera jumping out of a bush or something.” Despite his lack of memories of his mother, he feels he lives his life in the same way she would.
“I think for so many people in the family, especially the men, there could be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold, as opposed to someone you are destined to be with. The difference between making a decision with your head or your heart,” Harry also said in the episode.
“And my mum certainly made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son,” he continued.