The Royal Family joins together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace each year to celebrate the monarch’s official birthday, but it holds a special memory for Prince Harry.

The Royal Family annually gathers to celebrate the monarch’s official birthday, a day filled with pageantry that concludes with an RAF flypast viewed from Buckingham Palace’s balcony.

In recent years, Prince Harry has been noticeably absent from the balcony alongside his family members, despite it being a tradition he participated in for most of his life. While Royal enthusiasts eagerly anticipate the balcony appearance, often charmed by the larger-than-life personalities of the royal children, Harry revealed in his memoir Spare that these moments also hold significant sentimental value within the family.

In a poignant excerpt from Prince Harry’s bestselling memoir Spare – which provides an insider’s perspective on Royal Family life – the Duke of Sussex recalls memories triggered by the passing of his cherished grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth. Amidst the flood of shared experiences that resurfaced during his mourning, Harry recounted a particularly endearing moment during a balcony appearance when he managed to make his grandmother laugh amidst the ceremony’s formality.

Prince Harry shared poignant memories of the late Queen, writing: “I couldn’t stop…remembering. Day and night, images flitted through my mind,” he recalled moments such as standing before her during his passing-out parade, catching her half smile, and making her laugh out loud on the balcony despite the solemnity of the occasion.

According to the Mirror he also reminisced about the last time his children were with the former monarch, and when she had agreed to participate in a comic video for the launch of his passion project, the Invictus Games. He revealed that the world was treated to the Queen’s humorous side, which many didn’t realise she possessed.

He continued: “She possessed such a wicked sense of humour – but she did, she always did! That was one of our little secrets.”

Harry further described the “distance” usually maintained when appearing in public as a royal, even when they were all together on the balcony. This contrast made his memory of making the late monarch laugh on one of these occasions even more touching.

He added: “As a royal, you were always taught to maintain a buffer zone between you and the rest of creation. Even working a crowd you always kept a discreet distance between Yourself and Them. Distance was right, distance was safe, distance was survival. Distance was an essential part of being royal, no less than standing on the balcony waving to the crowds outside Buckingham Palace, your family all around you.”