Prince Harry spoke about wanting to be a better parent (Image: Getty)
Prince Harry has said he wants to be a better parent than his father, revealing he “had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with” before having children with Meghan Markle. The Duke of Sussex made the personal comments during a talk at an event about fatherhood hosted by the Movember charity on the second day of his and Meghan’s visit to Australia today.
Although the duke said he was not “judging” his father, he alluded to his parents, the King and the late Princess Diana, when he spoke about how each generation of parents needed to be “an upgrade”.
READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ‘sinister’ plot as Australia trip torn apart
READ MORE: Prince Harry makes rare 6-word remark about King Charles during Australia speech
Prince Harry said he wasn’t pointing fingers (Image: Getty)
Harry visited the Whitten Oval in Melbourne, the training and administrative headquarters of the Australian rules football club, the Western Bulldogs, where he met supporters of the men’s mental health charity.
And speaking about his own experiences of being a dad to Prince Archie, six, and four-year-old Princess Lilibet, he spoke about the evolving roles of parents. But he insisted he was not “pointing the finger” at his own parents, but explained even those with a perfect upbringing would still want to improve on this with their own children.
He explained: “I see parenting evolving over time. Our kids are our upgrade. Not to say that I upgraded my dad or that my kids upgraded me, but the kids that we bring up in today’s world need to be upgraded.”
He added: “There’s no judgment, there’s no blame, there’s no pointing the finger. The reality is that, however you are parenting, that is a personal experience to you, you are going to want to improve on that.
“Obviously, 40 years ago, there wasn’t social media, so that’s just one example of conversations that are now happening in households between kids and parents that never existed between me and my parents.”
He also discussed his experience of therapy before his children were born, and said: “Certainly from a therapy standpoint, you want to be the best version of yourself for your kids.
“And I knew that I had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with, and therefore prepare myself to basically cleanse myself of the past.”
The duke said there could be a “disconnection” in the early days of fatherhood, adding “certainly I felt a disconnection because my wife was the one creating life, and I was there to witness it”.
Harry said: “I think for many guys, you try to think about what service can I provide at this point, because my work here is done to some extent.
“And then when it comes back around again, I think the biggest tip that I was given, actually, from my therapist in the UK, was just be aware of how you feel once the baby is born.
“Every single time I went to work and I came back – if I was stressed, the moment that I held Archie, he would start crying.”
He added: “Fatherhood is the most important and sort of transformational role that a guy can ever, can ever move into.”