Baby Archie and Harry gets a cuddle from Dr Jane Goodall

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have introduced their baby son to an unlikely childhood hero, chimpanzee expert Dr Jane Goodall.

Harry and Meghan are huge fans of the world renowned primatologist and invited her to their Frogmore Cottage home in June where she cuddled Archie, then five weeks old.

On Tuesday, Dr Goodall welcomed the duke to a meeting of her Roots and Shoots youth empowerment project to learn more about the initiative where he spoke out against the scourge of plastic he dubbed society’s “dirty habit”.

She believes Harry’s interest in her programme, which encourages young people to improve their lives, communities and local wildlife for the better, stems from the royal becoming a father.

Roots & Shoots Leadership Meeting
Roots & Shoots Leadership Meeting

She said she quizzed the duke about fatherhood telling him “Of course you’re interested in Roots and Shoots, especially now you have a baby and he said ‘yes of course’.

“When you bring a child into the world today you have to worry about the future. If we don’t make change we don’t have a future.”

The conservationist said she “clicked” with the duke during their first meeting at Kensington Palace last December and hopes to join forces with him.

She said they wanted to “collaborate and work together to raise awareness about conservation and the need to conserve the natural world” and hoped fans of Harry, who may not be interested in the issue, would be drawn to find out more.

Roots & Shoots Leadership Meeting
Roots & Shoots Leadership Meeting

Meghan has also been an admirer of the 85-year-old for many years, Dr Goodall said: “She told me ‘I’ve hero-worshipped you all my life, you’ve been my idol since I was a child’.”

Dr Goodall’s work with chimpanzees has made her an international figure due to her findings and she is credited with making the first recorded observations of chimpanzees using tools and eating meat.

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