Prince Harry Compares Royal Life to ‘The Truman Show,’ Details ‘Incognito’ Meghan Markle Dates in Most Revealing Interview Yet

Credit: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Prince Harry Compares Royal Life to ‘The Truman Show,’ Details ‘Incognito’ Meghan Markle Dates in Most Revealing Interview Yet

Laying it all out there! Prince Harry discussed his journey to starting therapy and the transition that he went on after leaving the royal family in his most candid interview yet. “It was a conversation that I had with my now wife. She saw it. She saw it straight away. She could tell that I was hurting and some of the stuff that was out of my control was making me really angry. It would make my blood boil," Harry, 36, explained during an appearance on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast on Thursday, May 13. The Duke of Sussex shared that it was his wife, Meghan Markle, who made him realize that he needed to go to therapy to deal with the ongoing issues. “I’ve never screamed, I’ve never shouted. ... For me, prior to meeting Meghan, it was very much a case of — certainly connected to the media — that anger and frustration of ‘This is is so unjust,'" he said. [jwplayer RHUsGlgt] For the couple, that was the beginning of many life-changing decisions. In January 2020, the pair announced that they were stepping back from their duties as working members of the royal family. They made the decision to move from the U.K. to California in March 2020 and a year later it was confirmed that they would not be returning to their senior roles at the Palace. The duo previously opened up about their time in the royal family, and it wasn't only Harry that struggled with his mental health. Markle, 39, revealed during their CBS tell-all interview that she tried to seek help for suicidal thoughts after so much targeted negative press in the U.K. "Look, I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, but I knew that if I didn’t say that I would do it,” she shared in March. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore." Now, Harry admits that their life in Santa Barbara allows them to walk "a little more free" and even take their 2-year-old son Archie for walks. The twosome are expecting their second child this summer. “Just to have a boy and a girl, what more can we ask for?” Harry said in the March interview. Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Prince Harry's honest conversation with Shepard: [podcast_block]

Credit: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Prince Harry Compares Royal Life to ‘The Truman Show,’ Details ‘Incognito’ Meghan Markle Dates in Most Revealing Interview Yet

Laying it all out there! Prince Harry discussed his journey to starting therapy and the transition that he went on after leaving the royal family in his most candid interview yet. “It was a conversation that I had with my now wife. She saw it. She saw it straight away. She could tell that I was hurting and some of the stuff that was out of my control was making me really angry. It would make my blood boil," Harry, 36, explained during an appearance on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast on Thursday, May 13. The Duke of Sussex shared that it was his wife, Meghan Markle, who made him realize that he needed to go to therapy to deal with the ongoing issues. “I’ve never screamed, I’ve never shouted. ... For me, prior to meeting Meghan, it was very much a case of — certainly connected to the media — that anger and frustration of ‘This is is so unjust,'" he said. [jwplayer RHUsGlgt] For the couple, that was the beginning of many life-changing decisions. In January 2020, the pair announced that they were stepping back from their duties as working members of the royal family. They made the decision to move from the U.K. to California in March 2020 and a year later it was confirmed that they would not be returning to their senior roles at the Palace. The duo previously opened up about their time in the royal family, and it wasn't only Harry that struggled with his mental health. Markle, 39, revealed during their CBS tell-all interview that she tried to seek help for suicidal thoughts after so much targeted negative press in the U.K. "Look, I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, but I knew that if I didn’t say that I would do it,” she shared in March. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore." Now, Harry admits that their life in Santa Barbara allows them to walk "a little more free" and even take their 2-year-old son Archie for walks. The twosome are expecting their second child this summer. “Just to have a boy and a girl, what more can we ask for?” Harry said in the March interview. Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Prince Harry's honest conversation with Shepard: [podcast_block]

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Living in a Zoo

Harry agreed that being a member of the royal family was similar to being in a cage.

"It's a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo," he said. "The biggest issue for me was that, being born into it, you inherit the risk. You inherit every element of it without a choice. And because of the way the UK media are, they feel an ownership over you."

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When He Knew He Didn't Want to Be a Royal

For Harry, the decision to not want to be a working member of the royal family came very quickly. But he knew that he had to "grin and bear it" for some time. 

"In my early 20s, I was in space of, 'I don't want this job. Look what it did to my mum, how am I ever going to settle down, have a wife and a family, when I know this is going to happen again,'" he explained. "I've seen behind the curtain, I know how this operation runs and works. I don't want to be part of this. Then once I started doing therapy suddenly the bubble was burst."

The Duke of Sussex revealed that after meeting Meghan he decided to "stop complaining" and seek help for his mental health.

"I plucked my head out of the sand and gave it a good shake off and I was like, 'You're in this position of privilege, stop complaining and stop thinking you want something different — make this different — because you can't get out. How are you going to do these things differently? How are you going to make your mum proud and use this platform to really affect change?'" he shared.

Harry added: "Looking back, I realize that helping other people, helped me. Once you've suffered you don't want other people to suffer."

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His Journey with Mental Health and Therapy

During the honest conversation, Prince Harry revealed that he was struggling as early as when he was a child.

"[I was told,] 'You need help.'As a case of, not weakness but 'I don't know how to deal with this. You're unhinged, you're not very well, go and seek help,'" he admitted.

Those conversations when he was younger made Harry want to reject the feelings that he was going through and just "run away."

"Everyone of us will try to find some way to mask the actual feeling and try to feel different than how we actually feel," he said.

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Pressures of Being a Royal

One of the most difficult parts for Harry about being in the royal family was the paparazzi. He detailed not being able to "go outside" because he was considered a well-known person.

"It's really really sad and their argument from the paparazzi and everyone else, if you're in a public space it's absolutely fine for us to do," Harry shared during the podcast.

He continued, "So what is our human right, as an individual and a family if you're saying from the moment we step out of our house, that it's open season and free game - what, because of public interest?"

The Duke and Shephard, 46, broke it down even further when they talked about how their kids have become a topic of public interest as well.

Harry concluded: "What is happening in today's world is that news has been hijacked and used to commercially benefit a small group of people, so this sort of rabid, feeding frenzy, and going back to the kids point, it's absolutely true, these kids don't get a choice, they don't get a say in it."  

Prince Harry revealed during the conversation that there were three moments where he felt "entirely helpless."

Those moments included when he was in the back of a car with his mother, Princess Diana, while she was being chased by paparazzi, then during his time in Afghanistan and later, when his wife was dealing with the pressures of the U.K. media.

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His Secret Supermarket Date with Meghan Markle

The royal shared a fun story about a date early on in his relationship with the Suits alum when she was visiting him in London.

"The first time that Meghan and I met up for her to come and stay with me, we met up in a supermarket in London, pretending that we didn't know each other, so texting from the other end of the aisle," he revealed. "There were people looking at me, giving me all these weird looks and coming up and saying hi, whatever, and I was there texting her saying, 'Is this the right one?' She goes, 'No you want parchment paper', and I'm like 'Where's the parchment paper?'"

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The Advice Meghan Gave Him About His Future

As the couple tried to handle the issues that came with being working members of the royal family, the Duke of Sussex found inspiration from the advice his wife gave him.

"My wife had the most amazing explanation. You don't need to be a princess —you can create the life that will be better than any princess," he shared.

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Those Naked Las Vegas Photos

"You're the only one I ever knew [from the Royal Family] and simply because you were in those awesome nude photos in Vegas," host Shepard, joked with Harry about the Las Vegas photos of him from 2012.

Harry revealed his thoughts on the photos that made headlines at the time. "You're constantly looking for other people to balance out your own behavior, right? It's relatable."

After the Parenthood alum commented that Harry had a "good body" in the photos, the royal responded, "Thank you ... That was a few weeks before I went to Afghanistan."