Prince Harry didn’t just open about his mother, Princess Diana, in his new AppleTV+ series. The royal did not hold back when it came to his issues with his father Prince Charles’ parenting skills.
“My father used to say to me when I was younger, he used to say to William and I, ‘Well, it was like that for me, so it’s gonna be like that for you.’ That doesn’t make sense,” Harry, 36, said in the third episode of The Me You Can’t See, which started streaming on Friday, May 21. “Just because you suffered, it doesn’t mean that your kids have to suffer. In fact, quite the opposite. If you suffered, do everything you can to make sure that whatever experiences, negative experiences that you had, you can make it right for your kids.”
Harry added that he and wife Meghan Markle “chose to put our mental health first,” which Charles, 72, doesn’t understand.
“Isn’t this all about breaking the cycle? Isn’t it all about making sure that history doesn’t repeat itself? That whatever pain and suffering has happened to you that you don’t pass on?” he asked.
The former military pilot cited his and Markle’s decision to resign from their roles working for Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family as an example.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in life is you sometimes have to go back and to deal with really uncomfortable situations. And to be able to process it in order to be able to heal. For me, therapy has equipped me to be able to take on anything. That’s why I’m here now, that’s why my wife is here now,” he explained. “That feeling of being trapped within the family is … there was no option to leave. Eventually, when I made that decision for my family, I was still told, ‘You can’t do this.’ I was like, ‘How bad does it have to get so I am allowed to do this?’ When she was going to end her life? It shouldn’t have to get to that.”
Harry went on to say that his “biggest regret” was not standing up for the Suits alum, with whom he shares 2-year-old son Archie, earlier in their relationship.
“My biggest regret is not making more of a stance earlier on in my relationship with my wife and calling out the racism when I did. History was repeating itself,” he said. “My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white. And now look what’s happened. You want to talk about history repeating itself? They are not going to stop until she dies. It’s incredibly triggering to potentially losing another woman in my life. The list is growing. And it all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry.”
The royal family has yet to publicly react to Harry’s new bombshell claims. He previously shaded his father during an interview with Dax Shepard earlier this month.
“When it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain and suffering because of the pain and suffering that perhaps my father or parents suffered. I’m gonna make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on,” Harry said on the May 13 episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “As parents, we should try and make sure we’re doing the most we can. Like, ‘That happened to me. I’m gonna make sure that doesn’t happen to you.’”
