For Harry, returning to London to attend Prince Philip’s funeral last month meant re-encountering a place where he felt trapped and chased by cameras. It would be a test of his ability to deal with the fear that rose again.
“I was scared, I was scared,” Harry told The Associated Press in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey to promote a mental health series they co-created and co-produced for Apple TV +.
He was able to cope with any fear with the coping skills learned in therapy.
“It definitely made it a lot easier, but your heart is still beating,” said Harry, the Duke of Sussex and grandson of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband Philip.
In The Me You Can’t See, which debuted Thursday night on Apple’s streaming service, Harry reveals that he first saw a therapist about four years ago, encouraged by then-girlfriend Meghan. They had quarreled and she realized that his anger seemed out of place.
The series is another chapter in the unprecedented openness Harry has brought into his life and relationships with the royal family since stepping down from his duties and moving to California with his wife. In March, he and Meghan Winfrey gave an interview that hit the headlines and sparked a rare public response from the palace.
Harry’s self-work may be relatively new, but he and his older brother, William, the Duke of Cambridge, have long advocated the importance of mental health. In 2016, Harry, William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, launched Heads Together, an initiative to speak up and not be ashamed to seek help when it comes to spiritual wellbeing.
Their collective work led to interactions with people around the world from all walks of life and they saw a common thread. “Sharing your story in order to save a life or help others is absolutely critical,” said Harry.
Harry practices what he preaches and exposes his own struggles with trauma and grief. He describes in The Me You Can’t See the cases when he felt helpless as a young boy driving in the car with his mother, Princess Diana, who cried when they were surrounded by paparazzi and she was struggling drive.
Years later, Diana was killed in Paris after the car she and her friend Dodi Fayed were driving in crashed during a high-speed chase while fleeing from cameras. Harry was 12 and was repressing his own emotions to meet the grieving audience that had gathered outside Kensington Palace.
The cameras rolled and snapped away as he walked to Diana’s funeral behind her coffin, along with William, father Prince Charles, Philip and Diana’s brother Charles Spencer.
Harry’s revelations coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s official confirmation a few months ago that he and Meghan will not return to royal leadership positions within the family after a year-long probationary period.
The couple now live about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles in an exclusive area near Santa Barbara called Montecito. You count Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Orlando Bloom as neighbors. The paparazzi are still lurking, but it’s less intense than Los Angeles.
This new, outspoken prince, sharing his feelings, is a contrast to the “never complain, never explain”, “keep calm and carry on” mantras that are part of the prototypical British path.
The British tabloids had a great day tearing apart his statements. Some royal commentators have also cried badly over a contradiction between seeking a private life and allowing interviews and exposing family disputes.
Harry seems to be careful about choosing what to talk about, and neither he nor Meghan seem interested in sharing their every move with the world. You don’t have a social media account.
He doesn’t let naysayers put him off, he says, because it’s better to be honest with your fights. “I see it as a responsibility. It’s not difficult for me to open up, ”he said. “Knowing the impact and positive response it has for so many people who are also suffering, I believe it is a responsibility.”
Winfrey was already working with Apple to create a series on mental health when a conversation with Harry sparked the idea of joining forces.
“We had a conversation and I asked him, ‘What are the two most important problems you face in the world today?’ And he immediately said, “Climate change and mental health.” She mentioned the project and Winfrey remembers him and later said, “Oh, by the way, if you ever need help with this … give me a call.” And I turned around and said, ‘What’s your number?’ “
Winfrey’s existing partnership with Apple has provided a rare opportunity to reach out to the large number of people who use the company’s devices, Harry said.
“With this in a billion pockets on a billion screens, maybe we can really start a global conversation about it,” he said.
Winfrey recalls some of her own childhood traumas in The Me You Can’t See. In addition to her and Harry’s stories, the series also features accounts from ordinary people and celebrities, including Lady Gaga and Glenn Close, who openly talk about their own experiences with mental illness.
Winfrey said Harry made an effort to present a global perspective. “It has to be a world thing, not just a US thing,” she told him, adding, “I think we did it really well.”
Harry jokes that he’s “slowly catching up” with Winfrey’s decades of inner work and encouraging others to do the same, whether on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” or in their “Super Soul Sunday” interviews with OWN. Even Winfrey said she had a lot to learn.
“I looked personally at one of the girls in my school (Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa) who had schizophrenia,” said Winfrey. “Only after the doctor has said it was a diagnosis. It’s not your life, it’s not who you are “I had my great awakening about it. … ‘This is not you. You are a person diagnosed with schizophrenia. ‘That is powerful. “