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Harry gets emotional about his tour, and his gran

After 10 days in the Caribbean and Brazil, the prince reflects on duty and family with his characteristic charm

Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Members of the royal family don’t tend to talk about their emotions, especially during a royal tour. But then again, there’s never been anyone like Prince Harry, and his fun-filled, informal visit to the Caribbean and Brazil. At the end of his 10-day tour, Harry summed his trip up in a way only he could: “I’m absolutely exhausted but the warmth of the reception that we’ve received from every single country that we’ve been to—including Brazil—has been utterly amazing. I personally had no idea how much influence the Queen has on all these countries. And to me that’s been very humbling, and I was actually quite choked up at times seeing the way that they’ve celebrated her 60 years. She’s thousands of miles away to some of these countries and yet they celebrated her in the way they did, and made me feel as one of them, so I couldn’t thank them more.”

“You can’t sit there with a stiff upper lip and crossed arms and not get involved,” the prince said. “We knew from the start that these countries were going to be fantastic fun. I’ve never taken myself too seriously and I hope everyone back home has seen it as it is but I’ve had an amazing time —I’ve had a gas.”

Near the end, he revealed he’d talked about the visit with his grandmother before he left Britain. “We had a great chat. She said: ‘You enjoy it, I hope you do me proud.’ It was a typical grandmother to grandson chat.”

Harry also added, “My family is the same as any other family when it comes to humor behind closed doors, though I’d like think I was funnier than my grandmother.”

One can only wait and wonder what he has up his sleeves for the London Summer Olympics. Maybe a rematch with Usain Bolt?

 

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