Prince Harry’s spokesperson has produced a statement denying a journalist’s claim about how he introduced his son during a meeting. It is claimed by journalist Tina Brown, he once introduced Prince Archie with a four-word nickname, “my little African child”.
Brown, a former editor-in-chief of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, made the statement during an interview on Katie Couric’s YouTube show. She said: “Jane Goodall, before she died, I had a lunch with her, and she said that she went to see… she was one of the only people outside the family that went to see Archie when he was born. And Harry said, ‘This is my little African child’.”
She continued: “It’s going to be my child who, you know — wild child, essentially. They were going to have this time together, living a life off the grid as it were. She said she was absolutely stunned when he chose the life that he did.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle famously quit life as working royals in 2020 and eventually relocated to Montecito, California.
A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex told People Magazine: “The Duke of Sussex has never said anything remotely resembling what is being claimed. Tina Brown knows exactly what she’s doing by inventing these words and attributing them to a highly respected woman who is deceased and unable to correct the record.”
Brown also issued a statement to the outlet, correcting the phrase: “On Katie Couric’s podcast yesterday (Wednesday, December 17th), I recounted what Jane Goodall said to me in June of this year about Prince Harry. She remembered affectionately Harry saying when Archie was born, ‘I want you to come and meet my African Child.’
“She actually said, ‘Africa child,’ but I was speaking too quickly. Aside from that inadvertent mistake, everything else in Ms. Goodall’s conversation with me, I rendered accurately.”
Prince Harry and Goodall met in December 2018 when he invited her to Kensington Palace to discuss their shared concern for the environment.
After the renowned conservationist died on October 1, 2025, Harry and Meghan honoured her in a statement.
They said: “Dr. Jane Goodall DBE was a visionary humanitarian, scientist, friend to the planet, and friend to us. Her commitment to changing lives extends beyond what the world saw, and also to what we personally felt.”
“She held our son, Archie, when he was first born, and showered love and care to those who were privileged to know her,” they added. “She will be deeply missed.”
