Prince Harry is one of the most privileged men in the world, but he’s also one of the most humble.
The 32-year-old has been dating Meghan Markle since last year, and they make a very cute couple. As is always the case with celebrity relationships, fans have been speculating about when the couple will take the plunge and become a married royal couple.
However, if you thought Harry was ready to dish the goods about his relationship with the Suits star, you were wrong. Instead, he opted to talk about something very personal.
What most people probably don’t know is that Harry took severe panic attacks in the aftermath of the death of his mother, Diana.
Harry opened up to Forces TV about his struggles, proving he was just like rest of us in the process. The interview came around in support of the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event he created for injured service personnel.
Should we have expected anything less of Harry? In previous interviews and appearances, he has come across as one of the most down-to-earth celebrities around.
It’s no wonder that Meghan Markle took an instant liking to him.
“When you can get your own head and self back on the right path, the amount of people you can help is unbelievable, because you can tell the signs in people,” Prince Harry begins.
“You can see it in their eyes. You can see it in them, their reactions.”
“In my case, suit and tie, every single time I was in any room with loads of people, which is quite often, I was just pouring with sweat, like heart beating – boom, boom, boom, boom – and literally just like a washing machine.”
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, get me out of here now. Oh, hang on, I can’t get out of here, I have got to just hide it.”
Harry opened up about earlier this year about seeking professional help for his mental health issues at 28-years-old. He described the difficult time as “Two years of chaos.”
He struggled with royal engagements and was “feeling on the verge of punching someone.”
That’s not a good situation to be in, so it was good that Harry asked for help. Not a lot of people do, and it generally results in mental health issues going undiagnosed.
The interview continued with Harry speaking to his friend, Dave Henson, a double amputee, he said:
“You go through all that stuff and then you met other lads who are on a similar journey, or the similarities are there.”
“You help yourself so you can help others. That is hugely powerful. So many people are, you know, like slightly mental. Awesome! We are, we are all mental, and we have all got to deal with our stuff.”
“Rather than running around at 50 per cent capacity, imagine if we could run around at 100 per cent capacity. Imagine what we could achieve.”
Harry even attributes his time in Afghanistan was a turning point for him to get over his mother’s death.
“Once I plucked my head out of the sand post-Afghan – yes, it had a huge life-changing moment for me as well.”
“I was like, right, ‘You are Prince Harry. You can do this. As long as you’re not a complete t*t then you are going to be able to get that support because you’ve got the credibility of ten years’ service and therefore you can really make a difference.”
“Actually going through Invictus and speaking to all the guys about their issues has really healed me and helped me.”
“I have got plenty of issues. None of them really relate to Afghanistan, but Afghanistan was the thing that triggered everything else and the process. If you lose your mum at the age of 12, you have got to deal with it.”
“The idea that 20 years later I still hadn’t really… that 15, 17 years later I still hadn’t dealt with it. Afghan was the moment where I was like, ‘Right, deal with it."”
“Sharing the stories and being amongst people who you know that when they tell you the issues they are having it is like, ‘Yeah, been there done that. Yep yep yep yep yep.’ And you go through all these lists, and you are like wow, so actually we have got a lot more in common than would meet the eye.”
“Then people suddenly jump to conclusions and say, ‘Oh, it must be Afghanistan.’ No. ‘So many people who suffer from depression, anxiety, alcoholism, it can be from when you were younger, and Afghanistan is the trigger to bring it all to light and to deal with that stuff.”
The interview concluded with Harry answering whether he had helped create Invictus Games as a coping mechanism for his own issues.
“Yeah, 100 per cent. For me, Invictus has been sort of like a cure for myself.”
Harry said it had been a ‘wonderful journey’ and that watching the injured competitors competing is “an inspiration that this country needs.”
“Everybody needs to get up off their arse and just say, ‘You know what, I’m not beaten, I’m unconquerable. Let’s do this."”
