Prince Harry Nails What It’s Like Working From Home With Kids
He also chatted about living in the U.S. and how his late mom Diana is affecting his life.
Prince Harry may be royalty, but when it comes to parenting, he’s just like all the rest of us grown-ups trying to work from home with our relentless small children.
The Duke of Sussex sat down with the Today Show’s Hoda Kotb to discuss everything from the Invictus Games to his recent visit with Queen Elizabeth. But it was his take on remote work that truly struck a chord with parents.
When asked about a typical Wednesday at his home in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, Meghan Markle, Harry admitted life these days is all about their kids Archie, nearly 3, and Lillibet, 10 months.
“It revolves around the kids as much as humanly possible,” he said of their day-to-day. “This whole working from home stuff is not all it’s cracked up to be. Certainly post-Covid. Because it’s really hard when your kids and you are in the same place — it’s really hard to separate the work from them because they kind of overlap.”
“Archie spends more time interrupting our Zoom calls than anybody else,” Harry added, “but he also gets us off them as well, so that’s also a nice thing.”
He couldn’t be more spot-on.
He did, however, admit that the “chaos” of fatherhood is what he loves most.
“The learning, the reminder of just every element of yourself, your soul...” Harry said of what he cherishes about parenting. “I love it. I love every part of it. I always wanted to be a dad. I always wanted to have my own kids, and now I got two little people who I’m responsible for.”
Prince Harry sits down with Today’s Hoda Kotb.
Harry and Meghan have enjoyed time at home after they stepped down as senior members of the royal family and moved to the U.S. in 2020. Since then, they’ve launched Archewell, a non-profit company that consists of the Archewell Foundation, Archewell Audio and Archewell Productions — all aimed to use compassion to drive systemic cultural change around the world.
Although their address has changed, Harry said his and Meghan’s mission to support underserved communities is still their first priority.
"From my wife’s point of view, this is a life that she signed up for, and we committed doing together as a couple forever," he said of their humanitarian work. "Because of the circumstances, we’ve now moved that life of service to the States, and we’ll continue to do what we were doing before. So, no, nothing’s changed for us. It’s just a little bit more complicated to have to sort of restart."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with their kids, Archie and Lillibet.
Harry also said that he believes his mother, the late Princess Diana, is with him every step of the way as he’s made the leap away from the very public life he was born into. He makes sure to tell Archie about her and show him photos of “Grandma Diana” all the time.
“[Her presence], for me, it’s constant. It has been over the last two years more so than ever before,” the 37-year-old, who was only 12 when he lost his mother, said. “It’s almost as though she’s done her bit with my brother [Prince William] and now she’s very much helping me. She got him set up, now she’s helping me set up. That’s what it feels like, you know? He’s got his kids, I’ve got my kids, the circumstances are obviously different, but I feel her presence in almost everything that I do now.”
When asked if he misses his brother and father, Prince Charles, with whom he is said to have a tumultuous relationship, Harry turned the discussion back to the Invictus Games, the Paralympics-type event he founded in 2014 for wounded military veterans.
"For me, at the moment, I’m here focused on these guys and these families and giving everything I can, 120% to them to make sure that they have the experience of a lifetime," he said. "That’s my focus here. And when I leave here, I go back, and my focus is my family, who I miss massively.”
