Prince Harry: I’m trying to bring my children to meet the Queen

The Duke of Sussex has said he is "trying" to bring his children to meet the Queen, but cited security problems that might make it too difficult for them to attend her Platinum Jubilee.

The Duke, currently in The Hague for the Invictus Games, said he had not yet decided whether he or his young family would travel to Britain for the celebrations in June.

"I don't know yet," he said, when asked whether he would attend. "There's lots of things, security issues and everything else.

"So this is what I'm trying to do, trying to make it possible that I can get my kids to meet her [the Queen]."

The Duke is currently in a legal battle with the Home Office, arguing that he requires tighter security arrangements to be safe in the UK.

He and the Duchess of Sussex last week made a brief visit to Windsor Castle to have tea with the Queen, but left their children, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, in California.

Prince Harry has only been back to Britain on two other occasions since leaving the working Royal family two years ago – the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, his grandfather, and the unveiling of a statue of Diana, his late mother.

He was interviewed by NBC's Today show and described as "the Queen's closest confidant" by host Hoda Kotb.

Asked specifically whether he missed his father and brother, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry changed the subject, saying his focus was on Invictus Games athletes and his own young family. America, he said, was now "home".

The Duke reserved warm words for his grandmother, saying it had been "really nice to see her" in Windsor with an "element of privacy".

"I'm just making sure that she's protected and has got the right people around her," he said. He did not elaborate on who he was referring to.

Praising her "sense of humour and ability to see the humour in so many different things", the Duke said he and the Queen "have a really special relationship – we talk about things that we can't talk about with anybody else".

He joked that he thought she would not pay too much heed to her 96th birthday on Thursday because "after a certain age you get bored of birthdays".

Asked whether the monarch would also be bored of her jubilee, he said: "No, she's had a few jubilees now, [but] every one is slightly different."

The portrayal of the Duke as the Queen's right-hand man will infuriate some within the palace. He has previously been openly critical of some of her aides and the institution he believes failed the Sussexes.

Other members of the family, including the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge, have remained close to the Queen, with all her four children visiting her regularly at Windsor Castle, along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Archie met the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as a newborn baby before moving to California with his parents, and 10-month-old Lilibet – named after the Queen's childhood nickname – has not yet met her.

Saying he had "of course" missed his family during the Covid lockdowns, Prince Harry stopped short of speaking affectionately about anyone other than the Queen.

His next focus, he said, was on "my family, who I miss massively", with his "two little people" in California.

The Duke also spoke movingly about his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, saying he believed she was looking over him. He has "a couple of photos" of her in the house, he said, and tells his children "all the stuff that happened" with "Grandma Diana".

"For me, it's constant," he said of feeling her presence. "It has been over the last two years, more so than ever before. It's almost as though she's done her bit with my brother, and now she's very much helping me get set up. He's got his kids, I've got my kids.

"Circumstances are obviously different, but I feel her presence in almost everything that I do now."

The Duke is currently at the Invictus Games in The Hague, and will give a speech at the closing ceremony on Friday.