Have you ever stopped and wondered why we all find Prince Harry so fascinating? In part, it’s because the man is a walking set of contradictions. On one hand, he is a handsome prince and represents the prim and proper legacy of England’s Royal Family. On the other hand, he is a controversial rulebreaker who married an American actress and eventually stepped down from his royal responsibilities, ultimately beginning a new life (and media empire) in the United States.
Part of Harry breaking all the rules of “stiff upper lip” royal life is that he can’t stop dropping some downright shocking confessions. To help you keep track of all the times Harry has absolutely blown our minds, we rounded up the most shocking confessions from the prince.
Diana’s death made him turn to drugs and alcohol
The defining moment of Prince Harry’s life was the tragic death of his mother, Princess Diana. She left behind a heartbroken pair of young boys, William and Harry. William has generally said very little about how his mother’s death affected him. However, Harry hasn’t held back about how her death nearly destroyed him.
Most of the juicier details from Harry came out in his documentary The Me You Can’t See. As The Sun reports, Harry in the documentary admits to using drugs and alcohol to try to mask the pain of losing his mother. “I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling.”
Continuing, he admitted, “I slowly became aware that, okay, I wasn’t drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night. And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.”
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He wants to ‘break the cycle’ of pain when raising his children
When Harry and Meghan announced they would be stepping down from royal responsibilities and actually moving out of England, their biggest critics and biggest fans all had the same question: “why?”
Harry actually answered this question when he sat down for an interview on the Armchair Expert podcast. As Express reports, he said “Isn’t life about breaking the cycle?” when asked if he would be raising kids in “the opposite direction” of how Harry’s father, Prince Charles, handled things.
Continuing, Harry said that “when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain and suffering, because of the pain and suffering that perhaps my father or parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so I don’t pass it on.’
Eventually, Harry realized that his father “was treating me the way he was treated, which means how can I change that for my own kids?” Hence, the need to break the cycle, right down to starting a whole new life in America.
He was scared that Meghan would die like Diana
As we noted before, the tragic death of Diana was the defining moment of Harry’s life. It continues to haunt him to this day, and in The Me You Can’t See, he shared the heartbreaking details of how this has impacted his marriage.
As The News reports, Harry told Oprah that he worries Meghan will be “chased to her death” the way his mother was. “It’s incredibly triggering to potentially lose another woman in my life.”
While Harry didn’t elaborate on this point at the time, it seems clear that this fear, combined with the way the British press kept treating Meghan, contributed to his desire to move to America and enjoy a quieter life with his family.
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He watches ‘The Crown’
If you haven’t watched it, The Crown is a Netflix show that follows the life of Queen Elizabeth throughout the years. As such, it portrays various members of the Royal Family in a uniquely-captivating way for the world to see.
Considering that he moved across the pond to get away from the Royal Family, you wouldn’t expect Harry to be a big fan of The Crown. But in an interview with James Corden, he admitted to watching the program!
As Harper’s Bazaar reports, it is the fictionalized aspect that Harry actually enjoys. “They don’t pretend to be news. It’s fictional, but it’s loosely based on the truth,” he said. “Of course, it’s not strictly accurate… but it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle — the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else — what can come from that.”
Ultimately, Harry much prefers the open fiction of the show to media lies about his family. And he couldn’t resist dishing on who he’d want to play himself on the show: Billions star Damian Lewis!
He acknowledged his unconscious bias
By marrying an American and moving to the U.S., Prince Harry was already doing things that seemed unthinkable to the rest of the Royal Family. Later, he did a third thing you’d never expect a prince to do: admit to the unconscious bias that affects his life.
This came up in a discussion with Black Lives Matter activist Patrick Hutchinson. As NBC News reports, Harry said. “Unconscious bias, from my understanding, having had the upbringing and the education that I have, I had no idea what it was.” Continuing, he said, “I had no idea it existed, and then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realize it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife’s shoes.”
Harry also acknowledged that it is “dangerous” when a powerful person doesn’t realize their bias and that it’s up to all of us to try to better ourselves. “Once you realize or you feel a little bit uncomfortable, then the onus is on you to go out and educate yourself, because ignorance is no longer an excuse.”
If a British prince can acknowledge his privilege and decide to improve himself, then the rest of us pretty much have no excuse!