The Duke of Sussex has revealed that the trauma of his mother's death led him to use alcohol and drugs to mask his emotions. In the Apple TV series The Me You Can't See, Prince Harry described how he tried to 'feel less like I was feeling' after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Harry, who was 12 when his mother died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, recalled the moment he walked behind her coffin at the funeral. 'It was like I was outside of my body and just walking along doing what was expected of me,' he told co-host Oprah Winfrey.
The prince said his family did not discuss Diana's death and expected him to cope with the resulting press attention and mental distress. He criticised his father's advice that because he suffered, his children should suffer too, saying: 'Just because you suffered doesn't mean that your kids have to suffer.'
Harry admitted to experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks from ages 28 to 32, and said 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'. He also used drugs to numb his feelings.
In the series, Harry also addressed the harassment of him and his wife Meghan on social media, saying his family ignored his requests for help. He said the couple spent four years trying to make their royal roles work before deciding to step back, feeling 'trapped and controlled through fear' by the media and the system.
