Prince Harry Admits He Used 'Drugs & Alcohol' To Cope With Princess Diana's Death
May 21 2021, Published 10:07 a.m. ET
Letting it all out. Prince Harry revealed that he turned to drugs and alcohol after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
During his new Apple TV+ show, The Me You Can't See, the 36-year-old said that after he learned of Diana's passing in 1997 — she was killed in a car accident — he was "so angry with what happened to her."
Following the tragedy, Harry said that not many people would talk about her death. "28 to probably 32 was a nightmare time in my life," he said, adding that he was "just all over the place mentally."
Harry described his late 20s as "hectic" since he was constantly working. "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," he shared.
Things then took a turn for the worse. "I would probably drink a week's worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night," he told Oprah Winfrey in the new series. "And I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something."
"I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs," he said. "I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling."
Fortunately, Harry is in a much better place today — especially since he started to go to therapy. "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.
“I’ve learned more about myself in the last four years than I have in the 32 years before that. I have my wife to thank for that,” the dad-of-one added. “I’m still the person that I was, but I’m just a better version of that. I kind of feel that this was always meant to be.”
