Prince Harry opens up about pain of losing his mother Diana in new emotional video in which he urges young people who have lost a parent to talk about their grief otherwise it ‘will eat away’ at them

Prince Harry stars in a new video in which he talks about grief and encourages children and young people to talk about their emotions.

The royal, speaking in his role as global ambassador for Scotty’s Little Soldiers, which supports young people who have lost parents in the military, shared his own insight after losing his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, at the age of 12.

‘As a child it’s so easy to think or convince yourself… you convince yourself that the person you’ve lost wants you, or you have to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that he or she is missed . But then there’s the realization: no, they have to want me to be happy,” he says.

Harry, 39, who has spent the last few years protesting what he says was a lack of family support following the tragic death of his mother in 1997, which he says caused him to bottle up his emotions and eventually seek therapy, added:

“That’s the hardest thing, especially for kids, I think, is, ‘I don’t want to talk about it because it will make me sad, but once I realize that when I talk about it I’m celebrating their lives, then things actually become easier’…as opposed to this ‘I’m just not going to talk about it, and that’s the best way to deal with it’, when in fact it isn’t. It could be for a certain period of time. You can’t suppress it forever. It is not sustainable. And it will eat away at you from the inside.

“You convince yourself that the person you lost wants you, or you have to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that he or she is missed.” But then there’s the realization: no, they have to want me to be happy,” he said

‘Nobody wants to be in a position where they’re forced to talk about the very thing they don’t want to talk about, especially when every defense mechanism in your mind, nervous system and everything else says, “Don’t go there.”

The emotionally charged video was taken in May, when he last came to Britain, and sees the prince speaking to Nikki Scott, founder of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, as she recounted the harrowing moment she had to tell her five-year-old son: Kai, that his father, Cpl Lee Scott, who served with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, had been killed in Afghanistan in 2009. She also had a seven-month-old daughter, Brooke, at the time.

It has been released by the charity in the run-up to Armed Forces Day on Saturday to highlight the ongoing needs of bereaved military children in Britain.

Mrs. Scott’s personal tragedy inspired her to start Scotty’s Little Soldiers after seeing the positive impact a family vacation had on her son.

Prince Harry spoke out on Saturday ahead of Armed Forces Day to highlight the ongoing needs of bereaved military children in Britain

Mrs Scott’s personal tragedy (pictured right) inspired her to create Scotty’s Little Soldiers after seeing the positive impact a family holiday had on her son

Prince Harry expressed his admiration for her work, commenting: “What you have done is incredible.

“It’s really inspiring. I’m really honoured and privileged to be part of Scotty’s now and I’m really looking forward to us doing everything we can to get more people, more interest, more funding and to get the message out there to give more children the opportunity to get the support they so desperately need.”

Scotty’s Little Soldiers currently supports more than 680 members and estimates that every year 2,100 children lose new family members who have served in the British Armed Forces.