Prince Harry turned to drugs, alcohol to cope with Princess Diana's death: 'I was trying to mask something'
The Duke of Sussex opens up about his mental health struggles to Oprah Winfrey in the new Apple TV+ series 'The Me You Can't See'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prince Harry has revealed that he turned to drugs and alcohol following the sudden 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana.
The 36-year-old Duke of Sussex opens up about his mental health struggles in candid conversations with Oprah Winfrey in the new series, "The Me You Can't See," on Apple TV+.
The first episode of the anticipated series, which dropped on Friday, shows Harry reflecting on the difficulties he faced in the years following the Princess of Wales' death. He was just 12 years old when she died from injuries she sustained in a Paris traffic collision.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling. But I slowly became aware that, OK, I wasn't drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week's worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night," Harry remembered.
PRINCE HARRY SAYS PLEAS TO HIS FAMILY FOR HELP WERE 'MET WITH TOTAL SILENCE, TOTAL NEGLECT'
Prince Harry opens up to Oprah Winfrey about how he coped with the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in the new series, 'The Me You Can't See,' on Apple TV+. (Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)
"And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something," he said, adding that he was "completely unaware of it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meghan Markle's husband specifically called the ages of 28 to 32 a "nightmare" for him and that his brain was "telling me that I'm in a fight."
Harry grappled with his mother's death not only at a young age, but on a worldwide stage. He walked behind her coffin in a televised royal funeral in front of millions of mourners.
Also in the series, Harry revealed he went through "panic attacks [and] severe anxiety" when carrying out royal duties.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I would feel as though my body temperature was two or three degrees warmer than everybody else in the room," Harry recalled. "I would convince myself that my face was bright red and therefore, everybody could see how I was feeling, but no one would know why, so that was embarrassing."
A lot of his stress came from "burnout" from being the royals' "yes man," he said, explaining that he would be jetted around the world in a very "hectic" manner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the series, Harry said he went through four years of therapy and learned from his therapist that he "never processed" the death of his mother and that those feelings were "coming up in different ways as projection."
PRINCE HARRY, PRINCE WILLIAM CONDEMN BBC FOR 1995 PRINCESS DIANA INTERVIEW
Prince Harry (center) with his brother Prince William and father Prince Charles at Princess Diana's funeral. (Reuters)
"It was like someone had taken a lid off all of the emotions that I've suppressed for so many years suddenly came to the forefront. And I saw GPs [general practitioners], I saw doctors, I saw therapists, I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people," the royal said. "But it was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn't do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harry's revelations on the five-episode streamer series comes just months after his and Markle's explosive two-hour tell-all interview with Winfrey aired. Harry revealed in the March 7 interview that he and his father, heir to the throne Prince Charles, went through a major rough patch in their relationship, with the future king even ceasing to answer his son's phone calls. The young prince explained that he only had two conversations with his father and three with his grandmother after moving to Canada before Charles stopped taking his calls.
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One of the jaw-dropping moments from the interview was the reveal that Markle was blocked from receiving mental health assistance when she was facing suicidal thoughts.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harry echoes his wife's sentiments in "The Me You Can't See," explaining that it was his tragic past that stopped Markle from harming herself.
"The thing that stopped her from seeing it through was how unfair it would be on me after everything that had happened to my mum and to now be put in a position of losing another woman in my life, with a baby inside of her, our baby," he said.
Now, Harry said his "biggest regret" is not standing up for his wife and the "racism" she was experiencing sooner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a two-hour sit-down interview about their lives as British working royals. In the bombshell interview, Markle revealed she faced suicidal thoughts. (CBS)
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"History was repeating itself. My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn't White and now look what's happened," said the royal. "You want to talk about history repeating itself, they're not going to stop until [Meghan] dies."
Markle and Harry’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 when they announced their decision to step back as senior members of the royal family. Following their move to California, they chose to make permanent their life outside of their royal duties.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Markle is currently pregnant with the couple's second child, a baby girl due this summer.