Yahoo Finance Prince Harry vows to will keep talking about mental health as genetic pain comments ‘raise tensions’
In a revealing interview, the
Duke of Sussex opened up about his own struggles
(PA Archive)" />
Prince Harry has said he will keep talking about his own mental health — ahead of the launch of his TV series with Oprah Winfrey next week.
In a revealing interview, the Duke of Sussex opened up about his own struggles, saying he wanted to do more therapy and stressed the importance of “sharing” traumatic experiences.
In comments likely to raise royal tensions, Harry also told how he moved to California to “break the cycle” of “genetic pain” faced by his family.
During the Armchair Expert podcast, hosted by actor Dax Shepard, the duke encouraged people to open up about their mental health struggles. He said: “Every single one of us has mental health. We shouldn’t just sit there and go, oh mental illness is once we are literally on the floor crawling around in the foetal position needing help.
“For me, I don’t think I need therapy any more, but I want it. And when I say therapy, I mean actual therapy sitting down and having a discussion with someone, but I also mean nature, going for walks, throwing the ball for my dog down the beach and stuff like that.”
He added: “You can get ahead of [mental health struggles] and work on the prevention by sharing and being more vulnerable with each other.”
Harry suggested he had grown up in an environment where no one talked about their mental health and vowed to bring up his son Archie, two, and the daughter he is expecting with wife Meghan, differently. Speaking about Prince Charles, the duke said: “He’s treated me the way he was treated, so how can I change that for my own kids?”
He added: “Anyone who is sitting there and saying ‘I don’t have a problem [with mental health] and never will have a problem’, well you are probably already contributing to the problem. Because you have probably got blinkers on. That is certainly what I have experienced from my own process.”
Harry’s words were met with wall of silence by the Palace today, but a royal source said the comments were “unhelpful” and suggested it could create difficulties during his planned trip to the UK in the summer, when Harry and brother William are due to unveil a statue of their mother Diana in Kensington Palace Gardens.
Following his interview with Winfrey in March, Harry has reunited with the TV star for the mental health documentary series The Me You Can’t See, which will be screened on May 21. Harry said he made the documentary because the climate crisis and mental health were “two of the biggest issues we’re facing”.
“They’re both intrinsically linked,” he said. “We can’t look after ourselves, we can’t look after each other. If we can’t look after each other, we can’t look after this home that we all inhabit. It’s all part of the same thing.”
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