Prince Harry said he drank the equivalent of alcohol in one day a week to try to cope with the trauma of his mother’s death.
In an interview with American TV presenter Oprah Winfrey, he also said he was ready to use drugs to deal with his feelings more than a decade after his death.
Harry and Oprah were talking about their new mental health streaming series.
The Duke of Sussex also spoke of anxiety and panic attacks while being an active member of royalty and his experience at his mother’s funeral.
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash while being chased by photographers in Paris in August 1997.
Speaking to Oprah for the Apple TV series The Me You Can’t See, Harry described living between the ages of 28 and 32 in “a time of nightmare” in which he experienced panic attacks and marked anxiety.
“I was mentally confused,” he said.
“Every time I put on a suit and tie… I have to do the part, and say ‘straight, serious face’, look at myself in the mirror and say ‘let’s go.’ Before I even left the house, I was drenched in sweat. in combat or flight mode. “
He added, “I was ready to drink, I was ready to use drugs, I was ready to try and do things that made me feel less like myself.”
Harry said he would drink the equivalent of a week of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday night, “not because I wanted to, but because I was trying to cover something up.”
Scenes of Prince Harry walking behind his mother’s coffin at his funeral, alongside his brother, father, uncle and grandfather, have toured the world.
“For me, what I remember the most is the sound of the horses’ hooves crossing the Mall (The Mall, the avenue in London that starts at Buckingham Palace and ends at Trafalgar Square)”, a- he declared.
“It was like I was out of my body and walking around doing what was expected of me. Showing a tenth of the emotion everyone was showing: that was my mom – you’ve never known her.
Recently, the 36-year-old prince campaigned for normal discussions about mental health to begin and started talking in detail about his personal experiences.
In March, he and his wife, Meghan Markle, were asked by Oprah about her life in the royal family and its impact on her mental health.
And in a podcast last week, Prince Harry said he was determined to “break the cycle of pain” in his upbringing by raising his own children, and said he was in therapy.
The Duke said the happiest time of his life was his ten years in the military, as there was no “special treatment” for him.
He left the armed forces at 30 and met Meghan on a blind date a year later.
The duke said family members told him “just play the game and your life will be easier”.
“But I have a lot of my mother in me,” he says. “I feel like I’m out of the system – but I’m still stuck there. The only way to free myself and escape is to tell the truth.
The streaming series features Prince Harry, Oprah, Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, and other personalities telling their own stories of mental health and wellness.
It was first announced in April 2019, almost a year before Harry and Meghan announced that they would no longer be active royals in January 2020.