In his new mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey called “The Me You Can’t See,” Prince Harry opens up further about the struggles he claims to have faced growing up as a member of the British royal family.
“People who are hurt, understandably hurt, from their upbringing, their environment, what’s happened to them, what they’ve been exposed to, what they’ve seen — whatever it is — if you don’t transform, if you don’t process it, then it ends up coming out and in all sorts of different ways and you can’t control,” he said in the series, according to People Magazine.
Harry added that his struggles with mental health only got worse after his mother Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in August of 1997. At the time, Harry was only 12 years-old.
“I am one of the first people to recognize that firstly, I had a fear of — when I first went to therapy — a fear of losing,” he explained. “Four years of therapy for an individual that never thought that they would ever need or do therapy is … that’s a long time. I wasn’t in an environment where it was encouraged to talk about it either. That was sort of, like, squashed.”
Harry went on to say that he “needed” therapy because of “the past, to heal from the past,” mainly the death of his mother.
“I don’t want to think about her, because if I think about her then it’s going to bring up the fact that I can’t bring her back and it’s just going to make me sad,” he added. “What’s the point in thinking about something sad, what’s the point of thinking about someone that you’ve lost and you’re never going to get back again. And I just decided not to talk about it. No one was talking about it.”
Harry then said that when it came to his mental health, he was told to grin and bear it.
“Family members have said just play the game and your life will be easier. But I have a hell of a lot of my mum in me. I feel as though I am outside of the system but I’m still stuck there. The only way to free yourself and break out to tell the truth,” he continued. “If your parents don’t want to talk about it. And your friends can’t remind you about it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t say, ‘Hang on a second, I may be the product of my upbringing.'”
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.