Prince Harry recalls turning to alcohol and drugs after Diana’s death, says ‘flash of cameras makes my blood boil’

Prince Harry has said that the flashing of cameras makes his ‘blood boil’ and that he is wracked with a feeling of helplessness at not being able to do anything to save his mother, Princess Diana.

In The Me You Can’t See, a new documentary series about mental health on Apple TV+, Harry spoke about his memories of his mother, who died in a car crash in 1997. He said that he showed ‘one-tenth’ of the emotion that everyone else was showing at her funeral procession, because he was expected to keep his composure in public.

“One of the feelings that comes up for me always is the helplessness. Being a guy and being too young to help a woman, in this case your mother, and that happened every single day,” he said. “I was so angry with what happened to her (Diana) and the fact there was no justice at all… the same people that chased her through that tunnel photographed her dying on the back seat of that car,” he continued.

“The clicking of cameras, and the flash of cameras makes my blood boil. It makes me angry. It takes me back to what happened to my mum, what I experienced as a kid.”

Harry said that losing his mother made him turn to alcohol. “I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs. I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling,” he said. “But I slowly became aware, OK, I wasn’t drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night. I was by myself drinking not because I was enjoying it, but because I was trying to mask something.”

Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, announced last year that they are stepping away from their duties as members of the British royal family. They subsequently relocated to California, where Meghan is from.

Also read: The Me You Can’t See review: Prince Harry bares his soul to Oprah in profoundly moving Apple show

In the months since their announcement, details of their fractured relationship with the royals has emerged. The couple appeared for a joint interview with Oprah earlier this year. The Me You Can’t See is co-created by Harry and Oprah.

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