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Before Prince Harry took the stage at a Melbourne mental health summit, I texted my ABC broadcaster mate Virginia Trioli a selfie: \u201cReady for Harry to talk about workplace burnout when he\u2019s never had a workplace!\u201d<\/p>\n
Virginia and I have enjoyed a few rollicking public and private debates on the Sussexes, who I see as talented opportunists. She asked if I was there to \u201ctroll\u201d Harry: \u201cI bet you end up kind of liking him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Prince Harry delivers the keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne on day three of his trip.Getty Images<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I was there to find out. Did I? And if you saw Haz in real life, would you?<\/p>\n
First, a bit of scene setting. Harry was 25 minutes late, which left host Professor Melinda Edwards improvising to 300 people who\u2019d paid $1000-plus a head to have their minds blown by a duke.<\/p>\n
She was awesome. Riffed about Finland\u2019s energy technology, kelp cultivation, a Bhutanese dish of molten fat: \u201cDoes anyone here like chilli? My husband\u2019s allergic.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he finally slipped up to the mic, Harry was visually worth the wait. He looked expensive, like Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager. In great nick. Improbably white shirt, beautifully cut suit. Tiny bit tired around the eyes.<\/p>\n
But this wasn\u2019t the prince who effortlessly nails children\u2019s hospital visits, can do a half-decent drop punt, charm anyone. It was like he was running an office town hall without enough notice.<\/p>\n
Limited stage presence, head down as he rattled through his platitude-laden speech. Social media platforms bad, speaking up good, \u201cit\u2019s a troubled world\u201d, \u201cbecoming a husband and father has a way of focusing perspective\u201d etc.<\/p>\n
Not boring: Meghan was there! Sitting off to the side, impeccable in white, laser-focused on her man. \u201cMaking a difference\u201d is \u201cvery depleting\u201d for them, Harry said, but \u201cwe all have to believe tomorrow is going to be better than today\u201d. Damn straight.<\/p>\n
But. When Haz got onto the Q&A with a fawning Brendan Nelson, he started talking off the cuff and suddenly wasn\u2019t just a middle-aged man who works at a life-coaching business.<\/p>\n
Related Article Asked where his sense of duty comes from, Harry was fabulously snooty, the Sandhurst officer barging around on a polo pony: \u201cI was born into it.\u201d Like, der, Brendan. \u201cAlso, it\u2019s what my mum would want me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Right answer. Being Diana\u2019s son is his calling card, so he went there, with something that combined brutality with delicacy.<\/p>\n \u201cGrief doesn\u2019t disappear because we ignore it,\u201d he said. \u201cExperiencing that as a kid while in a goldfish bowl under constant surveillance, yes, that will have its challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd without purpose, that will break you. I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want this job.\u2019 It killed my mum. I stuck my head in the sand for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Legit, I wanted to invite him home for soup and an early night.<\/p>\n Thing is, I can still see Diana\u2019s longer hair like a cloud around her beautiful, happy, exhausted face when she carried Harry from hospital.<\/p>\n I remember him in a puff-sleeve shirt, bashing away on a piano. Dressed as a tiny soldier, dinking his mother on a jet-ski a week or two before she died when he was 12.<\/p>\n Most of all, everyone remembers his untouchable devastation at her funeral, a lost boy walking through London wanting the one thing he could never have again.<\/p>\n So while he\u2019s not much chop as a speaker \u2013 I\u2019ve seen more convincing spiels on shopping channels and he should hire Larry Emdur as his speechwriter\/chemistry coach \u2013 I felt more for Harry than expected.<\/p>\n Not because he\u2019s one of the world\u2019s most famous people, but because at moments I could clearly see the 12-year-old boy again.<\/p>\n Of course, life moves on, but this particular man is frozen in time for a lot of us. And that\u2019s why he\u2019ll always have an audience.<\/p>\n This one gave him a standing ovation. \u201cLoved it. Love him,\u201d said our table mate Rose. At age four, she met Princess Diana at her Melbourne kinder. \u201cHe\u2019s as real as you can get for someone like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe. And Virginia, I did end up kind of liking him. Keep that under your hat.<\/p>\n Kate Halfpenny is the founder of Bad Mother Media.<\/p>\n The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Meghan,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9cec82e226af00efdf8cc1f71b052b9230efb129.jpeg\")
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Harry was a lot more interesting answering questions at the summit.Geoff Webb<\/p>\n![\"Princes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/03bdcdc5e332def5e1ef974143619ad3b503ec5a.jpeg\")
Princes William (left) and Harry at their mother Diana\u2019s funeral in 1997.AP<\/p>\n