Prince Harry, In NYC For Climate Week, Spoke About His Mother at Diana Awards

Prince Harry is in New York City for Climate Week, but on Monday, he carried out a series of midtown Manhattan engagements that honored two of Princess Diana’s lasting charitable legacies. At the Concordia Summit, an annual gathering of businesses and nonprofits, the prince spoke onstage with recent winners of the Diana Award. Founded in 1999, the award honors young people who have made positive change in their local areas.

With Christina Williams from Jamaica and Chiara Riyanti Hutapea Zhang from Indonesia, Harry spoke about the importance of thinking about mental health from a systemic perspective.  He said that the honorees of the award were carrying out works that were “so true to how my mother lived her life.”  The Diana Award’s longtime CEO Tessy Ojo also announced that the charity would launch a decade-long focus on mental wellness. 

Onstage, Harry told Williams and Zhang that young people like them help keep him hopeful about the future. “The courage that you have gives me hope because every single one of us needs courage in order to move the dial and, and, and create positive change in today’s world,” he said. “Thank you to you guys for giving me—and probably a lot of other people in this room—hope. Now we need to listen, constantly, listen and then act on the advice and the vision that you have because otherwise it’s your future that’s been stolen, and that is unacceptable.”

The memory of his mother was central to Harry’s afternoon event with the HALO Trust, an anti-landmine charity that had been one of Diana’s central focuses during the final years of her life. The prince was joined by Senator Chris Coons and Angola’s Foreign Minister Tete António for a panel in front of a group of nonprofit professionals and funders that Harry called a “band of true believers hoping for a mine-free world,” which was simultaneously translated in English and Angolan Portuguese for the international guest.