Prince Harry Co-Host Says Neither Were OK With Their 2023 Interview Format: ‘I Didn’t Follow My Gut’
Author and trauma specialist Gabor Maté is opening up about the March 2023 interview he did with Prince Harry. In an October 2023 podcast, Maté shared he didn’t like the interview’s paywall set-up or the “demeaning” remarks that came his way afterward.
Gabor Maté wanted the Prince Harry interview to be ‘free public service’ and ignored his ‘gut feeling’
Speaking to entrepreneur Steven Bartlett on the Oct. 12 episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast, Maté explained he didn’t like that attendees were required to pay to see his and the Duke of Sussex’s discussion.
“I had a gut feeling all along that I shouldn’t agree to doing it the way they set it up,” he said. “The way it was set up was, in order to watch it people had to buy a copy of Harry’s book. I thought this is not fair. Four million people have already bought the book. Why can’t they watch this interview? Do they have to buy another copy?”
Tickets for the Spare livestream interview, which continued a publicity push for Harry’s January 2023 memoir, started at approximately $33.
“In other words, I believed that this should be a free public service, on a part of two people who can have a very interesting conversation,” Maté continued. “But out of sheer opportunism, I agreed to it. So, I didn’t follow my gut feelings, I lost myself even in agreeing to the format.”
Maté also noted he and Harry were in agreement after recording the interview, telling the podcast host he and the now-39-year-old wanted it to be free. The problem, he shared, was that “the lawyers said you can’t do that because this was advertised as a one-time only event and there could be a class action suit.”
“I agreed to something that I didn’t really like,” he added. “Not that I didn’t like the idea of talking with him [Harry] I didn’t like the idea of putting this behind the paywall, so I lost myself just in agreeing to it.”
Criticisms of him from the Prince Harry interview ‘really got to’ Maté
Maté continued, saying beyond not liking the interview’s paywall set-up, the “demeaning” and “dismissive” criticism aimed at him in the aftermath was unsettling.
“It was for the most part so negative and so demeaning and so dismissive and so distorted that I barely even know how to talk about it,” The Myth of Normal author said.
“I thought by this age I would know better,” Maté, 79, said. “But you know what it really got to me, it really got to me.”
Harry told Maté he didn’t view himself ‘as a victim’ in the March 2023 interview
Titled “Spare: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex in conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté,” the March 4, 2023, virtual event saw the father of two open up about his own “trauma” and loss.
“I certainly don’t see myself as a victim,” Harry said at the time. “I’m really grateful to be able to share my story in the hope it will help empower, encourage others, and hopefully let people understand that, again, back to the human experience, that we are in some shape or form all connected, especially through trauma.”
