'SHARED EXPERIENCE'
Prince Harry bonds with Robin Williams’ son over losing a parent saying he was ‘angry’ at the public for mourning Diana
PRINCE Harry bonded with Robin Williams' son over losing a parent after saying he was “angry” at the public for mourning Diana.
The royal, 36, shared a candid chat with Zak Williams who’s dad took his own life in 2014, in a bonus episode of his Apple TV series The Me You Can’t See that screened overnight.
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The Duke of Sussex asked Zak: “How has it played on your own mental health to experience the world grieve the loss of your father, someone they didn’t personally know, but that you knew intimately as your dad?"
The 38-year-old actor replied: “It was hard to separate initially the process of privately grieving with the general public.
“I had trouble differentiating that grieving process at first and it was really challenging for me.”
Harry added: “We have a lot of shared experience when you talk about that.
“When you see so many people around the world grieving for someone they feel as though they knew them better than you did.”
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It comes as the Duke of Sussex opened up about the pain of the death of his mum, who died in a car crash in August 1997 when he was just 12.
Harry addressed traumatic memories from his childhood - including the moment he was photographed with his brother, uncle and grandfather walking behind Diana's coffin at her funeral.
He expressed his frustration that the country grieved for his mother, despite not knowing her personally at all.
He told his series co-host Oprah Winfrey: "When my mum was taken away from me at the age of 12, I didn't want the [royal] life, sharing the grief of my mother's death with the world.
"For me, the thing I remember the most was the sound of the horses' hooves going along the Mall.
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"It was like I was outside of my body and just walking along doing what was expected of me.
"(I was) showing one tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing: This was my mum - you never even met her.
"I was so angry with what happened to her and that there was no justice, at all. Nothing came from that."
The pair also bonded over their reaction to their parents' deaths.
Zak revealed how he turned to alcohol after his actor dad tragically took his own life in 2014 but has now been sober for four years.
He said: “Really it was me drinking, things I used to mask my experience. That was all exasperated over time specifically with my dad dying by suicide.”
Harry praised Zak for turning his life around and said he “wished” Jumanji star Robin was alive still to see the “remarkable” man he’s become.
In the new episode, Harry says:
- He 'loves to see' families 'thrive' as they discuss mental health -
- That 'listening' can help people suffering from suicidal thoughts -
- He has a 'shared experience' with Robin Williams' son as they
- That climate change and mental health are 'linked'
And in the first episode of The Me You Can’t See Harry told how he was regularly “drinking a week’s worth of alcohol in one day” to “mask the pain”.
Harry said: “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.
“But I slowly became aware that, okay, 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.
“And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.”
Zak and Harry’s chat featured in the latest episode of his bombshell mental health documentary that aired on Apple TV overnight.
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Titled “A Path Forward,” it features him and co-producer Oprah in a town-hall set-up describing the making of the series – which caused a fresh Royal rift upon its release last week.
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Harry says he “learned” families can “feel shame” when they hear of someone’s mental health problems in another thinly-veiled dig at the Royals.
And he revealed how “listening” helped Meghan Markle in her suicide battle as he urged: “You’re not alone”.
Prince Harry ‘angry’ at British public for mourning Diana saying ‘you never even met her’
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