Prince Harry has opened up about his experiences, thoughts and feelings towards his royal relatives in a string of interviews over time, in particular with Oprah Winfrey, as well as Tom Bradby, plus his memoir Spare and Netflix docu-series Harry and Meghan.
The 38-year-old royal - who has son Archie and daughter Lilibet with wife Meghan Markle - opened up even more to Dr. Gabor Maté, who is an expert on toxic trauma, in a livestream conversation, which has been reported on The Times.
Harry acknowledged most families are "complicated" and "dysfunctional", but believes therapy is what helps to encourage people to speak the same language to understand one another better, so much so the Duke of Sussex has encouraged his family to seek therapy, after he sought help from professionals.
He said: "A lot of families are complicated and a lot of families are dysfunctional as well."
Harry called on his personal experience with therapy during the conversation, and said it taught him a "new language", and get a better understanding about himself.
He added: “[I had] a new language and the people that I was surrounded by, they didn’t speak that language.”
“So I actually felt more pushed aside and then I said to my therapist: ‘Ok, I’ve got a problem — this is working for me so that I can now live a truly authentic life and be genuinely happy and be a better dad for my kids, but at the same time I’m feeling more and more distant from my loved ones and my family, this is a problem.’”
"If I didn’t know myself, how could members of my family know the real me?”
Harry was 12 years old when he sadly lost his mother, the late Princess Diana, in 1997.
Following the heartbreaking ordeal Harry was diagnosed with PTSD by a therapist.
Recalling the diagnosis, he said: "It didn’t feel great when I was told I had PTSD.”
While Dr. Gabor diagnosed Harry with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) after reading the memoir Spare, triggered by "stress" in his life inhibiting from concentrating on a single task.
Harry hopes to break the stigma around mental health, and believes everyone is battling with it in some form.
He said: “I think we’re all on the spectrum and we slide up and down, depending on where we’re at in our life."
Despite the diagnosis, Harry doesn't want his experiences to impact his children.
He added: "Making sure I smother them in love and affection. As a father, I feel a huge responsibility to make sure I don’t pass on any negative trauma I’ve experienced as a child … We only know what we know.
“I had an incredible childhood as far as I can remember, elements of it, and elements of it were incredibly painful."
As well as therapy, Harry has praised his wife for "saving" him.
Harry shared: "People have said my wife saved me. I was stuck in this world, she was from a different world and helped draw me out of that. My partner is an exceptional human being and I’m eternally grateful for the wisdom and the space she’s been able to give to me. The two of us have had our own stuff with our families.
"I certainly don’t see myself as a victim. I do not, and have never looked for sympathy in this.”
