The Duke of Sussex has said he does not have many early memories of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, believing he has internally “blocked them out”.

Diana died in a car crash when Harry was just 12, but the duke, in his new Netflix documentary, said he still remembers her “cheeky laugh”.

Archive footage of Diana and Harry’s father, the then Prince of Wales, with Harry and his older brother William at Harry’s christening and during other arranged photocalls were shown in the tell-all series Harry & Meghan, which began streaming on Thursday.

“My childhood, I remember, was filled with laughter, filled with happiness and filled with adventure,” he says.

“I don’t have many early memories of my mum. It was almost like internally I sort of blocked them out.

“But I always remember her laugh, her cheeky laugh, her always saying to me ‘You can get in trouble – just don’t get caught’.

“I’ll always be that cheeky person inside.”

Harry also said the Duchess of Sussex is “so similar” to his mother.

In the first episode of the Netflix documentary he said: “When I got to know Meghan more and more I was like ‘I’m really like falling in love with this girl’.

“So in spite of my fear I just opened my heart to see what’s going to happen.”

Harry went on: “So much of what Meghan is, and how she is, is so similar to my mum.

“She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence.

“She has this warmth about her. I accept that there will be people around the world who fundamentally disagree with what I’ve done and how I’ve done it, but I knew that I had to do everything I could to protect my family, especially after what happened to my mum.

“I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”

The same part of the episode shows Meghan holding Archie in front of a framed photograph of Diana and telling him: “That’s your grandma Diana.”

Harry also spoke about his experience of facing photographers as a child.

“The majority of my memories are of being swarmed by paparazzi,” he said, adding that they rarely had a holiday without someone jumping out of a bush with a camera.

“Within the family, within the system, The advice that’s always given is don’t react. Don’t feed into it,” he said.