Prince Harry, 32, has secretly visited the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to check up on Ollie and Amelia Carroll, two siblings who both suffer from a rare genetic disease called Battens.
Harry first met the family at the WellChild Awards last October, when Ollie, who had lost the ability to stand, reached out with help from his mum to receive a cuddle from the prince.
“What happened that day was truly magical,” the Carroll Famliy explained in a Facebook post. “Ollie used all of his strength to stand on two feet to give Prince Harry a huge hug. We truly believe in that moment a bond was made between Ollie and Prince Harry.”
Prince Harry is pictured with little Ollie at the WellChild Awards last October.
Since the special interaction, the parents wrote to the royal to explain that they had been granted access to receive a new treatment for Batten. And Harry didn’t just respond to the letter, he stopped into the hospital for a surprise visit.
The unofficial engagement, described by a Kensington Palace spokeswoman as a “private visit,” quickly made headlines after a photograph posted to the Carroll family’s Facebook page showed Harry with Ollie tucked up lovingly in his lap.
While another captured a special moment of laughter shared between the royal and young Amelia.
Harry and Ollie share an undeniable bond. (Image via Facebook/Ollie’s Army Battling Against Battens)
The royal and little Amelia share a moment of happiness. (Image via Facebook/Ollie’s Army Battling Against Battens)
“For an hour Prince Harry sat with us talking and playing with our children, laughing and making memories,” the parents wrote on Facebook. “The very thing our children want the most in life, to be happy and having fun.”
“We feel so much pride knowing that Ollie and Amelia are touching the lives of the people they meet, with their love and their strength,” the post read. “The love, the support and the laughter within that treatment room on Tuesday will stay with us forever.”
The tender moment will undoubtedly remind royal watchers of the charity work carried out by his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Prince Harry was just 12 years old when his mother died in 1997.
But according to the royal, he didn’t deal with his grief until decades later, which ultimately lead to a myriad of mental health issues.
He told Bryony Gordon for her Mad World podcast that he was “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions” and living in the public eye only exasperated his anxiety.
“I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” he explained.
“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”
WATCH: Prince Harry opens up about his late mother. Post continues…
“My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?”
“And then [I] started to have a few conversations and actually all of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, there is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with.”
Harry says it was “only two years … of total chaos” before he was comfortable to express his feelings.
“I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I just didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
Thankfully, Harry says seeking help has left him in a “good place.”
