Prince Harry has opened up about the long-lasting mental struggles that he underwent after his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales' death. In an interview with The Telegraph, Harry disclosed that he had sought counselling after two full years of enduring chaos.
The royal revealed he was also struggling to cope up with the reality. Harry was just 12 when his mother Diana died in a car crash in Paris. He said: "I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well."
Harry added: "I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything is coming to you from every angle."
Harry's revelation has been widely appreciated by mental health experts. In the interview, Harry also spoke about how he overcame the mental struggle with the help of professionals. He revealed that he began addressing his grief only when he was 28 and it was the uncontrollable anxiety that started taking a toll during his royal engagements.
The youngest royal scion also admitted that at one point he started taking boxing classes to vent out his frustration. Harry's biggest moral support was his brother William, who kept encouraging him to seek professional help.
"My way of dealing with it (the loss) was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help? [I thought] it's only going to make you sad, it's not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like 'right, don't ever let your emotions be part of anything," he said. "Because of the process (professional help) I have been through over the past two and a half years, I've now been able to take my work seriously, been able to take my private life seriously as well, and been able to put blood, sweat, and tears into the things that really make a difference and things that I think will make a difference to everybody else."
The interview was a 30-minute candid conversation with Bryony Gordon for the first episode of her podcast, Mad World, in which she will interview high-profile guests about their mental health experiences.
