{"id":298642,"date":"2025-07-28T14:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298642\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T14:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:06:15","slug":"prince-harrys-second-mom-he-secretly-visited-in-africa-without-meghan-markle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298642\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry’s second ‘mom’ he secretly visited in Africa without Meghan Markle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since setting up his family home in Montecito, Prince Harry prefers to keep his time away from Meghan Markle, and their kids, Archie and Lilibet, at a minimum.<\/p>\n

Case in point, for the King’s Coronation,\u00a0he flew in and out on the same day<\/a>, plus when his father was diagnosed with cancer, the Duke also made a whistlestop visit\u00a0<\/a>to his bedside.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, it came as a surprise when the California-based royal spent over a week away from his family during his recent visit to Africa.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry’s trip began in Angola, highlighting the work of The Halo Trust<\/a>, a charity that works to remove landmines and other explosives from battle zones.<\/p>\n

\"Prince\u00a9 Ampe Pedro\/The HALO TrustPrince Harry in Angola<\/p>\n

Following his time in central Africa, rather than heading home, Prince Harry is believed to have travelled to the neighbouring country of Botswana.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry’s trip to Botswana<\/p>\n

The Duke of Sussex has spoken passionately about Botswana in the past<\/a>, saying he feels “deeply connected to this place and to Africa,” partly because he discovered Botswana during one of the most difficult times of his life.<\/p>\n

\"princePrince Harry to Meghan Markle to Botswana<\/p>\n

“I came here in 1997 or 1998 straight after my mum died, so it was a nice place to get away from it all, “he said at the time. “It’s a sense of escapism \u2013 a real sense of purpose\u2026 I have some of my closest friends here over the years.”<\/p>\n

On the topic of his friends in Botswana, it is believed that during his most recent visit, Prince Harry called in on someone he considers a mother figure, filmmaker Tania ‘TJ’ Jenkins, whom he calls ‘mom’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prince Harry’s friends in Botswana<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tania and her husband Mike Holding played an important role in Harry’s life for many years after they met in Botswana when Harry was dating Chelsy Davy, with Harry documenting their first meeting in the pages of Spare.<\/p>\n

\"woman\u00a9 InstagramTania Jenkins is a special person to Prince Harry<\/p>\n

“Both Teej and Mike were talented, brilliant, and wholly devoted to wildlife. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with these two, not just on this trip but in general. The problem was, would they let me? I’d often catch Teej looking in my direction, sizing me up, a curious smile on her face\u2014as though I were something wild that had unexpectedly wandered into their camp. But instead of shooing me, or using me, as many would’ve done, she reached out and\u2026 petted me.”<\/p>\n

ROYAL FAN? JOIN THE CLUB<\/p>\n

Welcome to The HELLO! Royal Club<\/a>, where thousands of royal fans like you get to delve deeper into the wonderful world of royalty every day. Want to join them? Just click the button below for a list of club benefits and joining information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of their bond, Harry added: “She and Mike were the first people ever to cherish whatever wildness was still inside me, whatever hadn’t been lost to grief\u2014 and paps. They were outraged that others wanted to eliminate this last bit, that others were keen to put me into a cage.”<\/p>\n

Of their time together in Africa, Harry added: “She could tell how at home I felt with them. She said: ‘I think your body was born in Britain, but your soul was born here in Africa’. Possibly the highest compliment I’d ever received.”<\/p>\n

Prince Harry’s second mother<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Prince even explained how he began to refer to TJ as ‘mom’, sharing: “One afternoon, as we were all getting ready to go for a walk, Teej started nagging me [and I said] ‘ Okaaay, Mom,’<\/p>\n

“It just flew out of my mouth. I heard it, and stopped. Teej heard it and stopped. But I didn’t correct myself. Teej looked shocked, but also moved. I was moved as well. Thereafter, I called her Mom all the time. It felt good. For both of us. Though I made a point, always, to call her Mom, rather than Mum. There was only one Mum.”<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping Harry had a restorative time in Africa with his second family \u2013 though we bet he was happy to get back to Meg and the children too.<\/p>\n

LISTEN: To the latest episode of HELLO!’s Right Royal Podcast<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since setting up his family home in Montecito, Prince Harry prefers to keep his time away from Meghan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,13080,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,7710,519,7796,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-298642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-british-royals","10":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","11":"tag-duke-of-sussex","12":"tag-harry","13":"tag-meghan","14":"tag-meghan-markle","15":"tag-prince-harry","16":"tag-royal-families","17":"tag-royal-family","18":"tag-royalty","19":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114931249081742349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}