Prince Harry has spoken out about being unable to process grief over his mother Princess Diana’s death until his late 20s.
Speaking to Bryony Gordon of the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Prince Harry said that he spent nearly 20 years ‘not thinking’ about his mother’s death, until he realised that he hadn’t actually dealt with it properly.
“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 said.
“(I thought) it’s only going to make you sad, it’s not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like ‘right, don’t ever let your emotions be part of anything.'”
He added, “And then [I] started to have a few conversations and actually 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.”
Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997, when Prince Harry was just 12 years old. He said that he realised all at once just what kind of effects it had on him over the years.
“I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” he said.
“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”
Prince Harry mentioned that one of the ways he was able to process his emotions was by taking up boxing.
“Everyone was saying boxing is good for you and it’s a really good way of letting out aggression. And that really saved me because I was on the verge of punching someone.”
The interview, which also takes the form of a podcast, has been called one of the most ‘candid’ interviews that Prince Harry has done in his life.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have also spoken out about mental health over the years, a cause that was very important to Princess Diana. Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton are all promoting the Heads Together mental health campaign, which is the London Marathon’s charity of the year.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
