How Prince Philip Helped Prince Harry Talk About His Military Career
Prince Harry had always maintained a solid relationship with his grandfather, Prince Philip, until his death in April. In fact, during an interview with James Corden on "The Late Late Show," the Duke of Sussex said that he regularly had video calls with both Queen Elizabeth and Philip after he moved to Los Angeles with Meghan Markle in 2020. Harry jokingly revealed that the Duke of Edinburgh would just slam his laptop shut after their Zoom calls.
When Cordon expressed his surprise that the Queen knew how to use Zoom, Harry replied with, "Yes, both my grandparents do. We've Zoomed them a few times. They've seen Archie running around. My grandfather, instead of, like, pressing 'leave meeting', he just goes [closing lap top sound]. I'm like, okay, bye!"
Seeing how Harry has always had an open line of communication with his grandfather, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that when the Duke of Sussex needed to talk to him the most, especially about such things as being in the military, he was always there for him. Here's what Harry has to say about it.
Prince Philip never probed Prince Harry about his time in the military
During the BBC documentary, "Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers," Prince Harry revealed that he used to have private and emotional conversations with his grandfather about his time serving in Afghanistan. Describing the Duke of Edinburgh as someone who was very blunt in nature, Harry said (via Newsweek), "What you see is what you got with my grandfather."
The one thing that Harry had in common with his grandfather is they were both active servicemen. The Duke of Sussex spent two tours in Afghanistan while Prince Philip reportedly saved the crew on his ship when he thwarted the plans of a Luftwaffe bomber during World War II, according to Mirror. Recalling one of the conversations he had with Philip, Harry said, "Going off to Afghanistan he was very matter-of-fact and just said, 'Make sure you come back alive'... then when I came back, there wasn't a deep level of discussion, more a case of, 'Well you made it. How was it?'"
Philips' straightforwardness helped Harry more easily speak about his war experience. "That's how he was," Harry added. "He was very much a listener, he sort of set the scene for you to be able to share as much as you wanted to share but he would never probe." With that said, it's no wonder Harry never minded having his grandfather abruptly close his laptop after their calls. It's that kind of directness that Harry likely misses about him.