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A body language expert analyzed Prince Harry’s recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he spoke about his childhood and Princess Diana. The expert claims that Harry appeared comfortable talking about his early life and late mother. Here’s what the Duke of Sussex discussed and what the expert said about his behavior. 

Prince Harry speaks of his childhood and Princess Diana during a speech.
Prince Harry | Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Prince Harry spoke of his mother, Princess Diana, at the U.N. on Nelson Mandela International Day

On July 18, Prince Harry gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Nelson Mandela International Day. His wife, Duchess Meghan Markle, accompanied him to the U.N. headquarters in New York. The royal couple visited South Africa in 2019, where they met Mandela’s widow, Graça Machel.

In his speech, the Duke of Sussex mentioned when his mother, Princess Diana, met Mandela. “On my wall, and in my heart every day, is an image of my mother and Mandela meeting in Cape Town in 1997,” Harry said (via USA Today). He added that the photo was given to him and his wife by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the couple’s 2019 visit to South Africa.

“When I first looked at the photo, straight away what jumped out was the joy on my mother’s face,” said Harry. “The playfulness, cheekiness, even. Pure delight to be in communion with another soul so committed to serving humanity.”

The Duke continued to say that Mandela was also “beaming” in the picture, despite being a man with “the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

“Yet, in that photo and so many others, he is still beaming,” he said. “Still able to see the goodness in humanity. Still buoyant with a beautiful spirit that lifted everyone around him. Not because he was blind to the ugliness, the injustices, of the world – no, he saw them clearly; he had lived them – but because he knew we could overcome them.”

A body language expert says Prince Harry appears ‘at ease’ when telling stories about his childhood

Body language expert Darren Stanton (on behalf of Slingo) analyzed Prince Harry’s behavior during his speech at the U.N. Stanton claimed that while the Duke seemed uncomfortable about being in the spotlight, he appeared “at ease” when discussing his childhood and his mother, Princess Diana.

Stanton called this confident Harry “a very different version” compared to “the one we are used to seeing.” When speaking of Princess Diana, Harry “became less fidgety” and “smiled sincerely” as he remembered the “playfulness” and “cheekiness” he referenced in his speech. 

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The Duke of Sussex will likely open up more about his childhood and Princess Diana in his upcoming memoir

Prince Harry has been writing a tell-all memoir that was scheduled to come out later this year, but it looks like it might be delayed until 2023. There has been a great deal of speculation about what the memoir might expose about the royal family. But one expert believes that the book won’t reveal juicy secrets, and instead will be an account of Harry’s childhood as a royal

Royal expert Kinsey Schofield said Harry’s recent return to the UK for the Queen’s Jubilee is a sign that he is softening toward his family. “I am certainly surprised by the decision and it makes me feel like Prince Harry’s book isn’t the scathing tell-all we feared,” Schofield told Express UK (via Geo News).

She continued, “Perhaps it’s just a book about a man who learned to live and love after the death of his mother. I’ve always hoped that it was more of a motivational book than a hit piece.”