Prince Harry Reflects on Queen Elizabeth II’s Legacy, Missing His Mom Princess Diana

Prince Harry Reflects on Queen Elizabeth II's Legacy, Missing His Mom Princess Diana

To the world, she's is the most famous figure, Queen Elizabeth II, the beloved British monarch who has reigned for 60 years.  But to her grandson Prince Harry, she's just "Granny."

Now, however, the prince has begun to see his most famous relative in a new perspective.

"When we were young it was very easy to take our grandmother for granted.  She was just a grandmother to us. It's only really sort of been over the last sort of five, eight to ten years that I've actually really learned to sort of understand and accept the huge deal that she is around the world, especially within the U.K.," Harry said.

To mark the Queen’s celebration of her 60 years on the throne, Couric conducted several rare interviews with members of the royal family including Prince Harry, The Duke of York Prince Andrew and The Duke of Cambridge Prince William, which will be shown in an ABC network special “The Jubilee Queen With Katie Couric,” Tuesday, May 29 at 9 p.m. ET.  The broadcast will also include interviews with Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice and would give viewers rare access inside Buckingham Palace.

The 27-year-old prince, who is the third in line to the throne, hit the road as the Queen’s royal envoy for the first time this March, visiting Central and South America and the Caribbean to greet and thank her subjects.

Prince Harry attended to royal businesses on behalf of her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who became monarch when she was only 25, but was widely applauded for the charm he brought to the task. He took on Olympic great Usain Bolt in a friendly 20-meter race in Jamaica and boogied with locals in Belize.

To royal watchers, it looked like the prince had not only found his groove, but also his own unique way to express the values he learned from his grandmother.

While Harry excelled on his first trip, taking on the level of royal responsibility that his grandmother did is something he can't imagine.

All eyes are on the royal family, but for Prince Harry and Prince William, one very important person is notably absent in their lives — their mother, the late Princess Diana.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday May 30 2012, 2:03 AM EDT. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0