Prince Harry has revealed that he used alcohol and drugs as an escape to cope with the trauma that came with losing his mother, Princess Diana.
Diana, the Princess of Wale died in August 1997 in a car accident while she was being pursued by press in Paris. At the time of his mother’s death, Prince Harry was only 12-years-old.
The Duke of Sussex opened up about the trauma of Diana’s death in the first three episodes of Apple TV’s The Me You Can’t See.
Speaking about the traumatic memories he included the notable moment when he was photographed with his family walking behind Diana’s coffin at her funeral.
He said, “For me the thing I remember the most was the sound of the horses’ hooves going along the mall. It was like I was outside of my body and just walking along doing what was expected of me. (I was) showing one-tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing: This was my mum- you never even met her.”
The 36-year-old opened up to his series co-host Oprah Winfrey about the grief that led to severe panic attacks and anxiety from the age of 28-32.
“I was just all over the place mentally,” he added. “Every time I put a suit on and tie on… having to do the role, and go, ‘right, game face’, look in the mirror and say ‘let’s go’. Before I even left the house I was pouring with sweat. I was in fight or flight mode. He said.
Harry also said at this point he was willing to take anything that would make him feel better.
“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,” he said.
He added that he would drink a week’s worth of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday night “not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.”
The online series focuses on mental health, and during the show Harry accused the Royal Family of ‘total neglect’ when his wife Meghan was feeling suicidal amid harassment on social media.
