In the first episode of the Apple TV+ series, premiering May 21, the Duke of Sussex told Winfrey that he started therapy four years ago. “Four years of therapy for an individual that never thought that they would ever need or do therapy. That’s a long time,” he confessed. “I wasn’t in an environment where it was encouraged to talk about it either.” When asked why he thought he needed therapy, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson replied, “To heal myself from the past.” Toward his late 20s everything became “really hectic” for Harry to the “point of exhaustion.” The Duke explained to Winfrey that he was traveling all over the place. “I was always the yes man. I was always the one willing to say yes,” the royal said. “But that yes and yes and yes, yes, of course, yes, yes, yes led to burnout. And it was like someone had taken the lid off. All of the emotions that I had suppressed for so many years suddenly came to the forefront.” Harry revealed that he sought out help from doctors, therapists and alternative therapists. “I saw all sorts of people, but it was meeting and being with Meghan,” he shared. “I knew that if I didn’t do the therapy and fix myself that I was gonna lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.” The British Prince and Meghan Markle reportedly met in July of 2016. In fact, the Duchess of Sussex—in reaction to an argument they had—told Harry that she believed he needed to see someone. The Prince was told during one of his therapy sessions that it sounded like he was “reverting to 12-year-old Harry.” “That was the start of a learning journey for me,” he shared. “I became aware that I’d been living in a bubble within this family, within this institution and I was sort of almost trapped in a thought process or a mindset.” The Duke of Sussex has been open about his struggles with mental health long before his Apple TV series and stepping away from royal duties. Harry was only 12 years old when he and his brother Prince William tragically lost their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. “My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?” he confessed to The Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon back in 2017. “[I thought] it’s only going to make you sad, it’s not going to bring her back.” So, Harry ended up suppressing his emotions. “I was like ‘right, don’t ever let your emotions be part of anything,’” he shared. “So I was a typical 20, 25, 28-year-old running around going ‘life is great’, or ‘life is fine’ and that was exactly it.” Though it all came to a head after he began to have “a few conversations.” “All of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, there is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with,” Harry said. With the encouragement of his older brother and others, Prince Charles’ youngest son eventually sought support. “It’s all about timing. And for me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it’s OK,” Harry recalled in 2017. When asked if he had seen a “shrink,” Harry answered at the time, “I’ve done that a couple of times, more than a couple of times, but it’s great.” ΩThe Duke noted that his mental health issues were not due to his time in Afghanistan. Harry served 10 years with the British Armed Forces and undertook two operational tours of Afghanistan. He said, “I can safely say it’s not Afghanistan-related. I’m not one of those guys that has had to see my best mate blown up next to me and have to apply a tourniquet to both their legs. Luckily, thank God, I wasn’t one of those people." The Queen’s grandson, who spearheaded the Heads Together campaign with his brother and sister-in-law Kate Middleton to end the stigma surrounding mental health, acknowledged that there is “huge merit in talking about your issues.” “The only thing about keeping it quiet is that it’s only ever going to make it worse,” he said. “Not just for you but everybody else around you as well because you become a problem. I, through a lot of my twenties, was a problem and I didn’t know how to deal with it.” Harry admitted in his new Apple TV+ series that therapy has “equipped” him with the ability “to take on anything.” He said, “That’s why I’m here now.” Scroll to read everything else Prince Harry has said about his mental health.
Prince Harry is putting his mental health first to “break the cycle” within his family
“One of the biggest lessons that I’ve ever learnt in life is 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.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “My father used to say to me when I was younger, used to say to William and I, ‘well, it was like that for me, so it’s going to be like that for you.’ That doesn’t make sense. Just because you suffered doesn’t mean your kids have to suffer. In fact, quite the opposite, do everything you can to make sure that whatever negative experiences you had, that you can make it right for your kids.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “We chose to put our mental health first. That’s what we’re doing and that’s what we’ll continue to do. Isn’t this all about breaking the cycle? Isn’t this all about making sure history doesn’t repeat itself? That whatever pain and suffering has happened to you, that you don’t pass it on?” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “If you’ve been through something that doesn’t mean that your kids or that everybody else has to go through the same thing that you’ve been through. I know that it’s my responsibility and my duty to break that cycle.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021)
Prince Harry experiences panic attacks and severe anxiety
“If people said, ‘How are you? I’d be like, ‘Fine.’ Never happy, never sad. Just fine. Fine was the easy answer.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “Every time I put a suit and tie on, and having to, you know, do the role and, you know, sort of like, ‘All right, game face, look in the mirror. Right, let’s go.’ Before I’d even left the house, I was pouring with sweat and my heart rate was–I was in the fight or flight mode.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “Panic attacks, severe anxiety. And 28 to probably 32 was a nightmare time in my life. From freaking out every single time I jump in the car and every single time that I see a camera.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “I was willing to drink. I was willing to take drugs. I was willing to do try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021)
He wanted to avoid the pain of his mother’s death
“I was so angry with what happened to her and the fact that there was no justice at all. Nothing came from that. The same people that chased her into the tunnel, photographed her dying on the backseat of that car.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “I always thought to myself, you know, what’s the point in bringing up the past? What’s the point in bringing up something that’s only going to make you sad? It ain’t going to change it. It ain’t going to bring her back. And when you start thinking like that it can be really damaging. And you [Prince William] always said to me, you said you’ve got to sit down and think about those memories, but for me, it was like, I don’t want to think about it.” (Heads Together film, 2016) “The timing wasn’t right. You need to feel it in yourself, you need to find the right person to talk to as well.” (The Telegraph, 2017)
Prince Harry felt “trapped” in his family
“That feeling of being trapped within the family is…there was no option to leave. Eventually, when I made that decision for my family, I was still told ‘you can’t do this.’ I was like, how bad does it have to get until I am allowed to do this? She [Meghan] was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “The moment I started therapy, it was probably within my second session, my therapist turned around to me and said that sounds like you’re reverting to 12-year-old Harry. I felt somewhat ashamed and defensive. Like, ‘How dare you? You’re calling me a child.’ And she goes, ‘No, I’m not calling you a child. I’m expressing sympathy and empathy for you for what happened to you when you were a child.’ You never processed it. You were never allowed to talk about it and all of a sudden now it’s coming up in different ways as projection.’ That was the start of a learning journey for me. I became aware that I’d been living in a bubble within this family, within this institution and I was sort of almost trapped in a thought process or a mindset.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021)
How Meghan Markle played a role in Harry seeking help
“When [Meghan] said, ‘I think you need to see someone,’ it was in reaction to an argument that we had. And in that argument not knowing about it, I reverted back to 12-year-old Harry. The moment I started therapy, it was probably within my second session, my therapist turned around to me and said that sounds like you’re reverting to 12-year-old Harry.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “I saw GPs. I saw doctors. I saw therapists. I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people, but it was meeting and being with Meghan…I knew that if I didn’t do the therapy and fix myself that I was gonna lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “I quickly established that if this relationship [his and Meghan’s] 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.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021)
Prince Harry’s experience with therapy
“And then once I started doing therapy it was like the bubble was burst. I plucked my head out of the sand and gave it a good shake off and I was like, You’re in this position of privilege, stop complaining and stop thinking you want something different—make this different—because you can’t get out…How are you going to do these things differently, how are you going to make your mum proud and use this platform to really affect change?” (Armchair Expert via PEOPLE, 2021) “For me it’s all about prevention. That doesn’t mean we have to speak to them every single day, but to have someone that can help guide us and create that awareness in our own life to when we might be feeling pain and how to get out of that and what the tools are available to us on any given day to make sure that it doesn’t snowball into something bigger.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “The experience I have had is that once you start talking about it, you realise that actually you’re part of quite a big club.” (The Telegraph, 2017)
Prince Harry wants to break the stigma surrounding mental health
“The stigma surrounding [mental illness] is a massive issue. I want to re-emphasize the point to people that it’s not a ticking time bomb.” (Good Morning America, 2016) “It’s OK to have depression. It’s OK to have anxiety, and it’s okay to have an adjustment disorder. My main fear is that people will not get the appropriate help due to the stigma surrounding the more common conditions.” (Panel discussion with veterans, 2017) “All of us have mental health. So the more we all get behind this topic, the more we can help not just the individuals suffering, but also their entire families and work colleagues as well. Together we will break the stigma forever and save lives.” (World Mental Health Day speech, 2017) “We all have mental health in the same way that we all have physical health.” (Panel discussion with veterans, 2017) “As William said earlier, we all have mental health just as we all have physical health. Too often we think mental health problems are things that happen to other people, not us. But we will all experience pressure on our mental health at some point during our lives. The more we accept that, the better we can help each other. Catching it and recognising it early, saves lives.” (World Mental Health Day speech, 2017) “We can all play our part by talking and listening to each other and helping each other find support.” (Virgin Money London Marathon x Heads Together video, 2016)
Prince Harry says therapy is not a sign of weakness
“To make that decision to receive help is not a sign of weakness. In today’s world, more than ever, it is a sign of strength." (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “It’s not weakness. I believe weakness is realizing an issue in yourself and not sorting it.” (Heads Together BBQ, 2016) “Everybody has some form of pain. You can think you’re the most successful, happiest person. That doesn’t mean that your life is sorted.” (The Me You Can’t See, 2021) “It’s always sold as though everybody else’s life is perfect that’s the problem and therefore you think if everyone else’s life is perfect there must be something wrong with me. If you can have a family environment where you can talk openly about your issues that makes for a better family, better preparation, probably working better at your job, doing better at school…it just goes on and on.” (Heads Together film, 2016) “Psychological illnesses can be fixed if sorted out early enough. We’ve got to keep the issue at the forefront of people’s minds. The simplest of things. Just talking about it makes all the difference.” (Good Morning America, 2016) “It’s not rocket science, but most of us don’t know what to do if a friend or family member is suffering. Having some basic knowledge, and having the confidence to act on your knowledge, can make a huge difference to those around us.” (World Mental Health Day speech, 2017) “You can improve your well-being and everyone else around you as well if you’ve got your head as strong as your body.” (Heads Together BBQ, 2016) Next, find out if Meghan Markle will appear in The Me You Can’t See.
