Prince Harry broke down crying during a speech for sick children in 2019, and a clip of the moment has gone viral on .

Why It Matters

TV cameras at the WellChild Awards captured Harry’s emotional speech, which his brother, , saw while on a tour of Pakistan. Harry later said the incident led to a 72-hour argument that represented a pivotal moment in the breakdown of their relationship.

What To Know

TikTok user @prxxtydi recently posted a showing Harry crying during his speech in support of sick children at the 2019 WellChild Awards.

The user, who often posts clips of Harry’s late mother, , wrote in the video’s text overlay, “Prince Harry thinks about [his] mother, Diana.”

In his , Harry gave a full account of the speech, which took place five months after the birth of his son, .

“I walked onstage, began my brief remarks, and caught sight of Meg’s face,” he wrote. “I thought back to a year ago, when she and I attended this event just weeks after taking that home pregnancy test.”

He continued: “We’d been filled with hope, and worry, like all expectant parents, and now we had a healthy little boy at home. But these parents and children hadn’t been so lucky. Gratitude and sympathy converged in my heart, and I choked up.

“Unable to get the words out, I held the lectern tight and leaned forward. The presenter, who’d been a friend of my mother, stepped over and gave my shoulder a rub.

“It helped, as did the burst of applause, which gave me a moment to restart my vocal cords. Soon after, I got a text from Willy. He was in Pakistan on tour. He said I was clearly struggling, and he was worried about me.”

Prince Harry and Prince William’s 72-Hour Argument

Harry wrote that William thought he was “unwell, which meant I was unwise,” and soon “the exchange turned into an argument, which stretched over seventy-two hours.”

“Back and forth we went, all day, late into the night—we’d never had a fight like that over text before,” Harry wrote in Spare. He continued: “Angry, but also miles apart, as if we were speaking different languages.

“Now and then I realized that my worst fear was coming true: after months of therapy, after working hard to become more aware, more independent, I was a stranger to my older brother. He could no longer relate to me—tolerate me.

“Or maybe it was just the stress of the last few years, the last few decades, finally pouring out.

“I saved the texts. I have them still. I read them sometimes, with sadness, with confusion, thinking: How did we ever get there?

“In his final texts, Willy wrote that he loved me. That he cared for me deeply. That he would do whatever is needed to help me. He told me to never feel any other way.”

Based on the prince’s account of the moment, it appears the suggestion that he cried because he was thinking about Diana is wide of the mark. Still, her memory might have hung over the princes’ exchange as Diana had publicly discussed her depression.

“Well, it gave everybody a wonderful new label—Diana’s unstable and Diana’s mentally unbalanced,” she said in a 1995 interview. “And unfortunately that seems to have stuck on and off over the years.”

What People Are Saying

One viewer commented on the viral TikTok video: “Prince Harry, you have your mums blessings and she is watching over you. Stay strong stay blessed.”

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen whether William will offer his account of the argument, though as a working member of the royal family, that he would speak out about the personal matter.

Harry attends the WellChild Awards each year, usually in September, and will likely be back in the U.K. for the 2025 event in the fall.

Williams Brown is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly , at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com’s .

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