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Sharing his story. In his new AppleTV+ series, The Me You Can’t See, Prince Harry took a deep dive into both his past and current struggles as a member of the British royal family, opening up about his mental health like never before.
The Duke of Sussex, 36, “never thought” he would turn to a professional for help but started therapy four years ago to “heal” from his past trauma, including the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
“I wasn’t in an environment where it was encouraged to talk about it … and that was sort of, like, squashed,” he said in the first episode of the docuseries, which debuted on the streaming platform on Friday, May 21. “For many, many years I didn’t even think about it. It wasn’t like I was holding onto it. I was unaware of it. I always wanted to be normal as opposed to Prince Harry, just being Harry.”
Harry was barely 13 when the Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. “Sharing the grief of my mother’s death with the world … I was so angry with what happened to her. And the fact that there was no justice at all,” he added, noting that he “didn’t want the life” of a public figure in that moment. “Nothing came from that. … And I just decided not to talk about it.”
More recently, thanks to his time in therapy, Harry has been able to speak more openly about the impact of Diana’s death on his mental health. “I was just all over the place, mentally,” he said of the aftermath of losing his mom. “I was in fight or flight mode. Panic attacks, severe anxiety. So [age] 28 to probably 32 was a nightmare time in my life.”
Pursuing professional help was a major decision — and he didn’t entirely make it alone. When he sparked a romance with Meghan Markle in 2016, he knew he had to do the work.
“I quickly established that if this relationship was going to work, that I was going to have to deal with my past because there was anger there and it wasn’t anger at her It was just anger and she recognized it. She saw it,” Harry shared in the third episode. “So how do I fix this? And it was a case of, ‘You need to go back to the past, go back to the point of trauma, deal with it, process it and then move forward.’”
The pair tied the knot in May 2018 and welcomed their son, Archie, one year later. In January 2020, the couple announced their plans to step back from their positions as senior royal family members. Two months later, they relocated to California. Earlier this year, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Sussexes, who are currently expecting baby No. 2, would not be returning as working royals.
“You’ve sometimes got to go back and to deal with really uncomfortable situations and to be able to process it in order to be able to heal. For me, therapy has equipped me to be able to take on anything. That’s why I’m here now. That’s why my wife is here now,” Harry said in the series. “We chose to put our mental health first. That’s what we’re doing. And that’s what we will continue to do.”
Scroll down to see more revelations about Harry’s past, Meghan’s impact and more:
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