Prince Harry Says Parenthood Has Made Him Miss Princess Diana Even More

Prince Harry took a brief break from new parenthood yesterday to travel to the Netherlands, where he ended up having a candid heart-to-heart.

The 34-year-old Duke of Sussex, who just welcomed newborn son Archie with wife Meghan Markle, visited with Invictus Games hopeful Dennis van der Stroon. The duo rode bikes together and launched the official countdown to the Invictus Games in The Hague next year. They also got real with one another about parenthood and Harry revealed that the experience of bringing Archie into the world has made him miss his mother, the late Princess Diana, even more.

Van der Stroon spoke about his “emotional” conversation with Prince Harry to People, saying, “We just got connected on this level. We talked about how my wife, Mireille, is 20 weeks pregnant with our first child, a girl, and he told me how special it was that his son has just been born.”

As van der Stroon explained, the duke said the experience of having a son has breathed a new sense of focus into his life.

“Harry talked about how having a small child was his new focus and new goal,” van der Stroon said. “Above all he said he was just amazed by the miracles in the world, and how his child has made a lot of people happy. He also told me he’s really happy that his son is so far very quiet.”

But growing families weren’t the only shared experience between Prince Harry and van der Stroon. The former soldier revealed that they’ve both lost their mothers: “I told Harry about my mother and we talked about our shared experience of missing a mom,” van der Stroon revealed. “He said missing a mother is like missing some kind of security, how you need that as a son and it falls away when you lose your mother. He said he meets a lot of people in his work who have lost a mother, father, sister, brother or relatives and when he hears their story, as he heard my story, he said he doesn’t feel so alone.”

Anyone else tearing up?