Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are completely smitten with the newbown Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor.
But the new dad’s happiness is bittersweet.
The new royal dad travelled to The Netherlands on Thursday — while wife Meghan Markle and their newborn son stayed home in Windsor — to launch the official countdown to the Invictus Games in The Hague next year.
During a bike ride around the park, Harry, 34, opened up to Dennis van der Stroon, 31, a former soldier who hopes to compete for The Netherlands Invictus team.
Dennis revealed his conversation with Harry was “amazing and emotional,” as the pair cycled together around site for next year’s Invictus Games.
He said Harry opened up about his new son and spoke about how becoming a father poignantly reminded him of his late mother.
In addition to both being veterans (Harry served in the Army for 10 years), the two both experienced the loss of their mothers. In 2014, Dennis’ mother, Marion, died from chronic lung disease, and in 2015 he was diagnosed with PTSD, triggering what he described as a “domino effect” of mental health issues.
“I told Harry about my mother and we talked about our shared experience of missing a mom,” Dennis shared.
“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.”