Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey are reuniting once more to discuss mental health.
Following the success of their Apple TV+ series, “The Me You Can’t See,” which they executive produced, Harry and Oprah will host a town hall conversation for a virtual follow-up discussion.
The duo will be joined by many of the people featured in their mental health series along with experts who appeared in the show. Glenn Close, Robin William’s son Zak Williams, who is a mental health advocate and speaker and Author and OnTrack NY Peer Counselor Ambar Martine will appear in the special.
“The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward” will be available for free on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 28th.
In the initial series, which was released last Friday, Prince Harry got honest about his mental health in a way we have never before seen. The Duke of Sussex opened up to Oprah Winfrey about his life and how therapy has helped him get him to a better place.
The former British royal detailed his past and talks about the devastating impact of losing his mother, Princess Diana, when he was so young had on his life.
He also recounts how his wife Meghan Markle helped him turn to therapy and details why they chose to step back from royal life.
“I saw doctors, I saw therapists, I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people,” Harry said. “But it was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.”
The 36-year-old said his mental health issues began after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. Harry was 12 when she died and had to mourn her loss publicly, in front of millions of people across the world. As he got older, he said he was never encouraged to talk about his struggles.
“I wasn’t in an environment where it was encouraged to talk about it either, that was sort of, like, squashed,” the Duke of Sussex said.
During his honest conversation with Oprah, Harry revealed that for a while, he was all over the place mentally. “If people said, ‘how are you?’ I’d be like ‘fine.’ Never happy. Never sad, just fine. Fine was the easy answer. But I was all over the place mentally,” he said.
According to Prince Harry, his mental health only got worse as his royal duties increased.
“Every time I put a suit and tie on and having to do the role and sort of like go, let’s go. Before I even left the house I was pouring with sweat, my heart rate was…I was in fight or flight mode. Panic attacks, severe anxiety,” he said.
Harry added that his life was a nightmare from age 28 to 31 and he frequently turned to alcohol to help him “feel less.”
“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,” the prince said. “But 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.”
He went onto add that when people are hurting, if they don’t transform and process, their emotions end up “coming out in all sorts of different ways that you can’t control.”
He added that he never thought he would need or do therapy, but eventually he realized it was time.
“I had to heal myself from the past,” the 36-year-old said.
Even after being in therapy, Harry said he is still haunted by being unable to help his mom as she struggled with the tabloid media.
Access Hollywood’s podcast “The Vault” features decades worth of A-list interviews and never-before-heard moments with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Listen now!
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.