Prince Harry Reveals He Used To Drink, Use Drugs To Make Him 'Feel Less Like I Was Feeling'
A rough patch. Prince Harry is opening up even more about his mental health battle.
The Duke of Sussex was candid on the second episode of the five-part The Me You Can't See series on Apple TV+, which was co-created by Harry and Oprah Winfrey.
The now 36-year-old described the ages of 28-32 as a "nightmare time of my life."
Prince Harry in 2008
Having lost his mother, Princess Diana, at the age of 12, Harry admitted he was "just all over the place mentally" by the time he was an adult.
In hindsight, Harry said that his late 20s were "hectic" to "the point of exhaustion." The red-headed prince was traveling abroad for royal duties "because from my family's perspective, I guess I was the person who was, like, 'We need somebody to go there. Nepal, Harry. You go.' I was always the yes man. I was always one who didn't say yes, but then yes, yes, of course. Yes. Yes, yes, led to burnout."
Harry then used alcohol and drugs to numb what he was feeling, he confessed.
"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," he admitted. "I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it, but because I was trying to mask something."
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Since then, Harry felt that addressing his mental health and trauma has been essential for his own health and his relationship with his wife, Meghan Markle.
"One of the biggest lessons that I've ever learned in life is you've sometimes got to go back and to deal with really uncomfortable situations and be able to process it in order to be able to heal," he explained.
In the episode, Harry recalled the evening he and Meghan spent at Royal Albert Hall in London when she admitted to having suicidal thoughts, while she was pregnant with their son, Archie.
The couple previously opened up about Meghan feeling suicidal during their bombshell interview with Oprah in February. In the explosive chat, Meghan said she "just didn’t want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought."
Harry said he felt sorry for Meghan, but added that he was "angry" with himself "that we're stuck in this situation." He added, "I was ashamed that it got this bad. I was ashamed to go to my family, because, to be honest with you, like a lot of other people my age could probably relate to, I know that I'm not gonna get from my family what I need."
After losing his mother, Harry said it was the fear of losing Meghan and raising Archie alone that was a large reason for the couple's decision to step back as senior royals and relocate.
They felt "trapped and feeling controlled through fear both by the media and by the system itself, which never encouraged the talking about this kind of trauma," he said. "But certainly now I will never be bullied into silence."
Since then, the pair have made Montecito, Santa Barbara, their home and are expecting their second child this summer.
