Prince Harry addressed Meghan Markle's absence from his solo visit to London during a poignant awards ceremony.
Last night, the Duke of Sussex was at the WellChild Awards where he paid tribute to the children and teenagers recognised by the charity, who act as carers, fundraisers or just carry on with life as they cope with debilitating conditions.
His brief trip to the UK came after a string of solo outings in New York last week, where he spoke at several high-level summits connected to the United Nations General Assembly and also appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. While at the WellChild Awards last night, Harry met one of the winners, Scarlett Cripps, who was recognised for her uplifting attitude despite living with a number of complex medical conditions.
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On meeting Harry, the 10-year-old gave him a set of crystal hearts – a blue one for himself, a green one for his son Prince Archie, a yellow heart for his daughter Princess Lilibet and a purple crystal heart for Meghan.
And afterwards, Scarlett's mum, Aby Cripps, revealed: "Scarlett told Harry she filled the crystal hearts with love and whenever he had a bad day or sad day he had to squeeze the heart and it would show him how special he was and make him smile. He said it was a lovely gesture and he hadn't seen his wife and his children because he was travelling here, so he'll take it out later and squeeze them and it will remind him of his lovely wife."
Following Harry's brief time in the UK, he does not look set to head straight back home to California as his travels continue. On leaving London, he is believed to be heading to Southern Africa for yet another overseas trip. It was confirmed last week that he is travelling to the region as part of a visit for his charity Sentebale, which he co-founded in 2006.
It will be his first trip to the area since 2019 and will see him gather world business leaders and philanthropists to work towards fostering prosperity in Southern African communities, specifically focused on young people. His Sentebale charity, which he co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, will bring together leaders from Google's charitable arm and several other companies and organisations for a series of meetings and discussions in both Lesotho and Johannesburg, South Africa.
While Sentable was initially established to help children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS, it now works to establish solutions to broader problems impacting youth in the region, like health issues, wealth inequity, and climate. The organisation's name means 'forget-me-not' in the Sesotho language, and the princes established the charity in memory of their late mothers.
Harry said: "As we head towards our 20th anniversary, our ambition has grown, giving us the confidence to bring our skills and experience in designing solutions with young people, and to leveraging our convening power to engage with leading regional players and global funders so we can add Sentebale’s voice to addressing the challenges faced by the next generation in southern Africa."
