Prince Harry told PEOPLE that he hoped to make his mother proud at the 2016 Invictus Games in Orlando. He believes he has six years later, at the fifth Invictus Games, as a husband to Meghan Markle and father to son Archie and daughter Lilibet.
In this week’s cover story, Prince Harry tells PEOPLE, “I honor my mother in everything I do.”
Princess Diana, Prince Harry’s mother, taught him the importance of helping others.
“I certainly hope and believe that everything I do makes her proud,” the Duke of Sussex says in an exclusive cover story for PEOPLE this week. “I saw and felt the energy and lift she got from helping others, no matter their background, ailment, or status, in the 12 short years I was fortunate enough to have with her. Her and their lives were better for it, however brief their or hers were.”He goes on to say, “In everything I do, I pay tribute to my mother. I am the son of my mother.”
Prince Harry said Princess Diana’s presence was felt in an interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb that aired Wednesday “”It has been for the past two years,” she continues. More so than at any other time in history.”
Harry also revealed that he tells his children about “Grandma Diana” and that the family has photos of her around their home in California, where they moved in 2020.
Prince Harry, 37, has continued Diana’s work for causes close to her heart after she died in 1997 at the age of 36. He has continued to advocate for HIV awareness, in addition to working with organizations to call for an international ban on landmines and even walking in Diana’s footsteps in a former warzone in Angola.
“That wall was smashed down by my mother, as well as many other people at the time. To slam the door in your face and say, ‘No.’ When people are suffering, we need to learn more, and if stigma is a big part of it, we need to talk about it more,’ says the author “In an interview with rugby player Gareth Thomas, creator of the Tackle HIV campaign, Harry said. “To begin with, this made people feel a little uneasy. Silence, on the other hand, is a breeding ground for stigma. That is something we are aware of.”
On what would have been her 60th birthday, Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, unveiled a statue honoring their late mother at Kensington Palace in July.
To help come up with a fitting tribute to the late princess, Prince William and Prince Harry formed a committee that included one of Diana’s sisters, some friends, experts, and charity contacts. They chose Ian Rank-Broadley, the sculptor who created the image of their grandmother Queen Elizabeth that has been on all British coins since 1998, to create the tribute.
“They have placed their mother right at the heart of the royal family over the last quarter-century,” historian Robert Lacey, author of the best-selling Battle of Brothers: William & Harry: The Inside Story of a Family in Turmoil, told PEOPLE.
Instead of giving individual speeches at the ceremony, William and Harry issued a joint statement honoring their mother: “Today, on what would have been our mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength, and character, qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better,” they said.
“Every day we wish she was still with us,” they added.
There is absolutely no doubt that your mother would have been extremely proud of the man you are and all the good works you do. She was a phenomenal woman who left and indelible mark on you because you are a phenomenal man. I wish that I could have met her because she is one of the women in history that I admire and respect. We will instill the same values in Sophia that you were raised with and that I also have.