Prince Harry Vows To Continue Princess Diana's 'Unfinished' Work In HIV Advocacy

Prince Harry said he feels a responsibility to continue his late mother Princess Diana's "unfinished" work in tackling HIV and the stigma around it, as he urged people to get tested for the disease.

During a video chat with former rugby star Gareth Thomas to mark National HIV Testing Week, the Duke of Sussex described himself as "a typical guy" who just wants to "fix things." He said he feels an "obligation" to try to continue his mom's bid to remove the stigma surrounding the illness.

Prince Harry and Thomas, who went public with his HIV diagnosis in 2019, discussed how normalizing HIV testing could help achieve the goal of ending new cases in the U.K. by 2030.

The broadcast of Prince Harry publicly undergoing a test for HIV in 2016 sparked a 500% increase in the number of people requesting a test on the Terrence Higgins Trust website, Yahoo U.K. reported. However, the duke said HIV testing had gone down about 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Every single one of us has a duty, or at least an opportunity, to get tested ourselves to make it easier for everybody else to get tested. And then it just becomes a regular thing like anything else," said Prince Harry from his California home Thursday in the video obtained by TalkRadio.

When asked what made him so passionate about the cause, Prince Harry said he has seen the suffering caused by the virus around the world and can't turn his back on it.

"Then add in the fact that my mum's work was unfinished, I feel obligated to try and continue that as much as possible," the prince added. "I could never fill her shoes, especially in this particular space, but because of what she did and what she stood for and how vocal she was about this issue… it’s a converging of all these different pieces."

In 1987, Princess Diana shook hands with AIDS patients at a London hospital, a move that was viewed as a milestone in the battle against the stigma surrounding people with the virus, Reuters reported.

The late royal also opened the U.K.'s first HIV/AIDS unit at London's Middlesex Hospital, a space that would exclusively care for patients with the virus, more than three decades ago.

Meanwhile, Thomas opened up to People about how the Duke of Sussex has helped him "publicly and privately" since he went public with his diagnosis.

The Welsh former rugby union player said Prince Harry "has been a constant support" to his Tackle HIV campaign and "wants to be part of the change and wants to eradicate the negativity that people come at it with."