(London) Prince Harry revealed on Saturday that he always felt “slightly different” from the rest of the British royal family and that smoking cannabis helped him, during a lengthy interview with a trauma specialist.
Harry, 38, told Dr Gabor Mate that having grown up in a “broken family” he does his best not to pass on “trauma” to his children.
This conversation comes after the publication, in January, of his controversial memoir titled The Alternate in which he recounts his adolescence marked by drugs and alcohol and details the breakdown of his relationship with his father, King Charles III, and his brother William.
“Throughout my life, from my early years, I felt slightly different from the rest of my family,” Harry told Mr Mate, according to multiple media reporting on the live-streamed interview.
“I felt strange” in this environment “and I know that my mother felt the same”, referring to her mother, Princess Diana.
He claimed to have been “saved” by his wife Meghan, “an exceptional being” who “coming from a different world helped him get through it”.
During this interview, Mr Mate – author of several books on trauma, addiction and illness – claimed that Harry suffers from attention deficit disorder.
Summarizing the life of the prince, who notably lost his mother at the age of 12 and then served in the British armed forces in Afghanistan, the specialist estimated that he suffers from “a lot of trauma”.
Harry, who moved to California after leaving the UK and the royal family with a bang in early 2020, spoke about how he is raising his two children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1.
“I feel a huge responsibility not to pass on the traumas or negative experiences I’ve had,” he said.
He added that together with Meghan they are trying to learn from their “past” and their “mistakes” in order to “break this cycle”.
In his memoirs, the prince admits having, in the past, regularly used cannabis as well as cocaine when he was a teenager.
He repeated to Mr. Mate that cocaine “did nothing for me”, but that cannabis is “different”, “it really helped me”.
The coronation of Charles, 74, will take place in May. Buckingham did not say whether Harry and Meghan would attend.