Prince Harry reveals his 20-year agony over Princess Diana’s death which left him close to a breakdown and in need of counselling
The 32-year-old royal said he decided to seek therapy after he was on the 'verge of punching someone'
PRINCE Harry has revealed he “shut down all his emotions” for two decades after losing his mother Princess Diana.
Harry, 32, admitted he had been close to a breakdown, sought therapy and took up boxing to combat frustration.
In a frank interview, Harry, 32, said he finally faced his pain at 28 when he was “on the verge of punching someone”.
The royal talked of “shutting down all of my emotions” for two decades after Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997 when he was only 12.
It got so bad that brother Prince William, 34, was left begging him to face his heartache and seek help.
Harry revealed he turned to therapy after coming “close to a complete breakdown” over the loss.
And he told how he turned to boxing as a means of safely taking out his aggression and frustration.
The Prince — who insists he is now in a “good place” — spoke out in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
Giving an account of conquering his demons, Harry told mental health journalist Bryony Gordon: “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.
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“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”
Prince Harry 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: “My way of dealing with it 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’.
“So I was a typical 20, 25, 28-year-old running around going ‘life is great’, or ‘life is fine’ and that was exactly it.”
But Harry explained that he started to have a few conversations and the grief he had never processed suddenly came to the fore.
He spoke out after he, William and sister-in-law Kate backed the Heads Together charity campaign to end stigma around mental health.
It is the centrepiece of this year’s London Marathon and is aimed at telling the world it is “OK to say”.
Prince Harry told how suppressing his feelings got so intense it hit his personal life and even haunted him at royal engagements.
Under the pressure of representing the Royal Family publicly — he was plunged into fight or flight mode at official events.
At 28, Harry’s life was thrown into “total chaos” but he said he realised he could not go on without coming to terms with Diana’s loss.
He insisted he was lucky it was “only two years” before he discovered talking through his problems could save him.
He said: “During those years I took up boxing, because everyone was saying boxing is good for you and it’s a really good way of letting out aggression.
“And that really saved me because I was on the verge of punching someone, so being able to punch someone who had pads was certainly easier.”
Asked if he had ever seen a “shrink”, he said: “I’ve done that a couple of times, more than a couple of times, but it’s great.”
Prince Harry insisted his emotional problems were not a product of war — despite seeing combat in Afghanistan.
But he credited his recovery in part to his work with wounded and sick ex- servicemen at the personnel recovery unit, where he learned the value of talking.
He is now determined to help save others.
Harry said: “I know there is huge merit in talking about your issues and the only thing about keeping it quiet is that it’s only ever going to make it worse.”
He added: “It doesn’t matter whether you are a prince or a mother or a CEO of a company or a white van driver or a kid.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, mental health, mental fitness, relates to every single one of us and there’s only positives that come out of having a conversation and talking about it.”
Prince Harry has hinted before that he spent years blocking out the emotion of Diana's death.
But this is the first time he has said he sought professional help.
The revelation will be seen as a major boost for those suffering with mental health problems but too scared of the stigma to either talk to friends and family or a counsellor.
TURMOIL OF CANNABIS AND NAZI DRESS-UP
By Patrick Gysin
PRINCE Harry has faced a life in the spotlight since Princess Diana’s death 20 years ago.
He was just 12 when his mum was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Five years later, he spent a day in a drugs rehabilitation clinic after smoking cannabis.
Two years later, in 2004, Harry scuffled with a snapper outside a London nightclub.
In January 2005 he apologised for wearing a Swastika to a fancy dress party.
He entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in May that year as Officer Cadet Wales and in 2006 was commissioned as an Army officer.
In 2008 the MoD revealed Harry had been serving in Afghanistan.
He was promoted to lieutenant with The Household Cavalry the same year.
But in 2012 images emerged of Harry and a woman naked in a Las Vegas hotel.
A year later it is thought he first sought professional help with his mental health.
In March 2014 he launched the Invictus Games.
Harry left the Armed forces in 2015.
In April 2016, with brother William and Kate Middleton, he launched mental health campaign Heads Together.
It was revealed in November that Harry, 32, was seeing US actress Meghan Markle, 35.