Prince Harry's military career may have helped prepare him for married life, a former army chief says.
General the Lord Dannatt, the British Army's former Chief of General Staff Army, said the prince appears to have toned down his previous image of "a playboy prince".
"I think the military has done a lot to help him grow up and that's made him a more mature person, which actually I think will make him a much rounder partner in the marriage that he's about to undertake," he told Forces TV.
Friend Dave Henson, a retired Army captain and Paralympic bronze 200m medallist, believes Prince Harry will one day make a good father.
"I think he's like any other service man or woman, we are all big kids really and actually I think the joy of having kids is that you get to be a big kid again, and I think he'll love doing it," he said.
In a decade-long Army career which ended in 2015, Prince Harry has had two frontline tours of duty in Afghanistan.
He was devastated in 2007 when plans for him to serve in Iraq fell through because of security threats.
Later that year, he achieved his dream of seeing frontline action, spending 10 weeks in Afghanistan as a forward air controller, co-ordinating air strikes on Taliban positions.
His tour was cut short when foreign websites broke a media blackout on reporting the details.
The prince retrained and qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot.
In September 2012 he made it back for a second tour of duty as an Apache co-pilot gunner.
His career took a different direction when it was announced he was to start a new Army staff officer role in London in 2014.
Australian Associated Press
