Prince Harry has paid tribute to the hard work his mother Princess Diana did in her battle to help people diagnosed with HIV.
The Duke of Sussex spoke to Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas over video call, where they discussed the importance of people getting tested for the virus.
The 37-year-old then praised the progress his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, had made during her years campaigning for public awareness of the disease, while insisting more still needs to be done.
Harry spoke to Gareth – who opened up about his own HIV diagnosis in 2020 – to mark National HIV Testing week.
Dialling in from his home in LA, the dad-of-two admitted: "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."
The pair then discussed how normalising HIV testing could help achieve the goal of ending new HIV cases in the UK by 2030.
Gareth, 47, also opened up about his own diagnosis 10 years after he became the first rugby player to publicly come out as gay.
Asked by Gareth, who married his partner Ian Baum in 2016, what made Harry so passionate about this topic, he explained: "Once you get to meet people and you see the suffering around the world, I certainly can't turn my back on that.
"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 Royal who shares children Lilibet, eight-months, and Archie, two, with wife Meghan Markle, 40, added.
"I feel obligated to finish my mum's work with HIV.
"Every single one of us has a duty, or at least an opportunity, to get tested ourselves or to make it easier for everybody else to get tested. And then it just becomes a regular thing like anything else", he continued.
The campaigning pair also shared a joke when Harry referred to them both as being from different generations.
Gareth responded by flexing one of his tattooed biceps and told Harry, "I've got bigger guns than you, bud", to which Harry impersonated the Welshman by repeating, "oh bigger guns."
The Former Welsh full back previously told OK! how Prince Harry called him a week after his diagnosis in 2019.
The inspirational star, who's appeared on Dancing on Ice and Celebrity Big Brother, said: "Together we’re going to work hard on something he cares passionately for because he’s carried on the legacy his mother left working with people with HIV and AIDS so he's very passionate about it as well."
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