Prince Harry Said He ‘Always Felt Different’ From His Family
During a candid discussion, Prince Harry revealed he always felt different from the rest of his family. He believes it was similar to how his mother Princess Diana felt. Harry credits therapy for helping him “unpack” his trauma and live a happy life.
Prince Harry admitted that he felt ‘different’ from other members of the royal family
Prince Harry sat down to discuss his memoir Spare with Dr. Gabor Maté, author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, during a virtual book event on March 4. During the chat, he discussed his childhood trauma, which included feeling ‘different” from his family.
“Certainly throughout my life, throughout my younger years, I always felt slightly different to the rest of my family,” Harry said. “I felt strange being in this container, and I know that my mum felt the same. It makes sense to me — it didn’t make sense at the time — I felt as though my body was in there, but my head was out, but sometimes it was vice-versa.”
Prince Harry continued, “The times that I ventured towards being myself, being my authentic true self, whether it was through media or family or whatever it was, it was almost like, ‘Don’t be yourself, come back to what you’re expected to be,’ if that makes sense.”
Prince Harry explained why telling his story in ‘Spare’ was an ‘act of service’
Harry also discussed why he wanted to be honest about his life in Spare.
“I really hope, and I hoped right from the beginning, when I turned around to the people that were helping me write this book, I said, ‘I want this to be an act of service, it needs to be, because I know important it is, because you’re almost giving permission for people to talk about their own stuff, and be their own selves, and society doesn’t really help us,” he explained.
Harry added, “And I would say even more so within my family, because of the expectations and because of how you’re cast as individuals.”
Duke of Sussex credits therapy for his happiness, even though he’s more ‘distant from loved ones’
The Duke of Sussex touched on how therapy has helped him “unpack everything” and discover how to be “truly happy.”
“A lot of families are complicated, a lot of families are dysfunctional, but for me when I was doing therapy regularly… I felt that I learned a new language,” Prince Harry said.
According to Harry, his family “didn’t speak that language.” He explained, “I realized that I’d learned a new language and people that I was surrounded by once, they didn’t speak the language — and so I actually felt more pushed aside.”
He added, “This is working for me and I’m starting to go back to the point of trauma and unpack everything so I can be truly happy… but at the same time I’m feeling more and more distant from my loved ones and my family.”
