Prince Harry isn’t done speaking his truth.
More than two months after his bombshell CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke of Sussex shed more light on his experience within the royal family, and how his pleas for help were “met with total silence.” Harry said he and his wife, Meghan Markle, were constantly being attacked and harassed by the U.K. press, and that his family simply refused to take any action.
“Within the first eight days of our relationship being made public, was when they said, ‘Harry’s girl almost straight out of Compton,’ and that her exotic DNA will be thickening the royal blood,” he said in the new Apple TV+ series The Me You Can’t See. “We get followed, photographed, chased, harassed. Picking up cameras and flashes of cameras, makes my blood boil, and makes me angry takes me back to what happened to my mum, I experienced when I was a kid,” the London native shared. “But it went through a whole new depth, not just with traditional media, but also social media platforms as well. I felt completely helpless. I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect.”
Harry, who co-executive produced The Me You Can’t See alongside Oprah, said he began feeling angry with himself because he and Meghan were stuck in such a toxic position. He then spoke about the night Meghan revealed she was having suicidal thoughts—a revelation that played a big role in his decision to step down as a senior member of the royal family.
“To be honest with you, like a lot of other people my age could probably relate to, I know that I’m not going to get from my family what I need,” Harry continued. “Then I had a son, who I would far rather be solely focused on, rather than every time I look in his eyes wondering whether my wife is going to end up like my mother and I’m going to have to look after him myself. That was one of the biggest reasons to leave, feeling trapped, and feeling controlled through fear. Both by the media and by the system itself, which never encouraged the talking about this kind of trauma. Certainly, now I will never be bullied into silence.”
Harry, who recently blamed the BBC for its role in Princess Diana’s death, also got candid about the pain he experienced after losing his mother at age 12. He said he grew up in an environment in which he was discouraged from talking about the sadness and anger he felt following the tragedy.
“I was so angry with what happened her. And the fact that there was no justice at all,” he said. “Nothing came from that. The same people that chased her into the tunnel, photographed her dying from the backseat. I didn’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 going to make me sad. What’s the point in thinking about something sad? What’s the point in thinking about someone that you’ve lost that you’re never going to get back again? And I just decided not to talk about it.”
Harry said that around his late 20s, those suppressed feelings led him to engage in destructive behavior, including using drugs and alcohol to numb his pain. He described the time as a “nightmare,” but was able to regain his happiness thanks to therapy and Meghan’s support.
“I have no regrets at all because now I’m in a place where I feel as though I should have been four years ago,” he said. “I don’t get panic attacks. I’ve learned more about myself in the last four years than I have in the 32 years before that. And I have my wife to thank for that.”
The Me You Can’t See is available to stream now on Apple TV+. The series focuses on mental health struggles and includes interviews with experts within the field as well as celebrities like Lady Gaga and Glenn Close.
