Prince Harry Gets Emotional Over Archie and Lilibet Beach Photo in Grief MasterClass

Prince Harry is opening up about one of the photos that means the most to him, a candid shot he took of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet walking hand in hand through a tidal pool.

The image, which Meghan previously shared on Instagram to mark Archie’s seventh birthday in May, shows the siblings at ease together in nature. In his new MasterClass, the 42-year-old Duke of Sussex explained, “I love this photo. I took this photo. This was just before Archie’s birthday.” He added that seeing “the two of them, brother and sister, at peace with each other in nature, fills my heart.”

The moment lands against the backdrop of Harry’s long-strained relationship with his older brother, Prince William. The pair have been estranged for years, and there has been no public sign of any reconciliation.

Harry’s comments appear in Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, the MasterClass he recorded with neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor. The class looks at how grief and resilience work, and how losing his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 shaped the rest of his life. While much of the conversation centers on that early loss, Harry also talks about what he has learned as a father.

“Becoming a father is an emotional rollercoaster,” he said. “I wish I’d known how hard being a father was going to be. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.” He went on to say he is “proud that we’ve got this far” and “super happy that I’ve got two healthy, beautiful, amusing, very funny kids.”

To keep work from pulling him away too long, Harry sticks to a simple rule. He tries not to spend more than 10 days away from Meghan and the children. “The biggest factor for me is the energy and the joy and happiness that I get being with my family, especially our kids, and the joy and happiness I get by being on the ground for my work,” he explained. “And the key to finding the joy and happiness balance is no more than 10 days away from my wife and kids.” He described it as balancing the purpose he finds in his work with the roles of husband and father.

For years after Diana’s death, Harry said he stayed “emotionally numb.” He felt that allowing himself to be happy would somehow be disloyal to her memory. “I felt like I had to be sad and I had to be emotionally numb in order to prove to her that I missed her,” he shared. What he eventually realized, he said, was that she only wanted him to be happy. That shift “freed me, and it gave me a whole different outlook on life.”

These days, as he raises Archie and Lilibet and continues charitable work, Harry says he still draws strength from his mother. “Everything I do, everything I put my energy towards, I hope that my mother will be proud about it,” he said. “There is an element of carrying my mother in me that ultimately energizes me for the work that I do.”

MasterClass approached Harry last year about creating a class focused on grief. He filmed it in California early this summer, though not at the family’s Montecito home. The class was released ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10 and benefits two bereavement charities, Comfort Zone Camp and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a cause Harry has supported for years.