Harry claims he’s never looked for sympathy and isn’t a victim in livestream Q&A
Prince Harry has claimed he “never looked for sympathy” and isn’t a victim, as he takes part in a live question and answer session.
He told Dr Gabor Maté: “I certainly don’t see myself as a victim”, adding that he wanted to help others by “sharing my story”.
The Duke also said: “And I have never looked for sympathy in this, for me.
“It’s for me experiences that I’ve had throughout my childhood, throughout my life, throughout my 38 years, albeit relatively short. I’m not looking forward to becoming 40, that’s for sure.”
The revelations came during a live video event to promote his memoir, Spare.
Harry further told the paying audience he was terrified of losing the memory of his mum, while taking part in counselling sessions about his childhood trauma.
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He said: “I thought if I went to therapy that it would cure me and that I would lose whatever I had left, whatever I had managed to hold on to of my mother.
“I didn’t lose that, it was the opposite.
“I turned what i thought was supposed to be sadness to try to prove to her that I missed her into realising that she really just wanted me to be happy and that was a huge weight off my chest.”
Harry also said he wished he had begun counselling sooner and suddenly felt like he “learnt a new language” once he started going regularly.
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Although he added that once he began understanding the trauma and living a “more authentic life and being a better dad” he realised he was becoming more distant from the Royal Family.
Prince Harry also said that marijuana “really helped him” mentally but taking cocaine “did nothing for him” as he opened up about his drug use with the doctor.
Speaking about cocaine, Prince Harry told Dr Dr Gabor Maté: “I don’t think that did anything for me.
“It was more of a social thing, and I guess trying to get a sense of belonging, for sure.”
He added: “I think it also probably made me feel different to the way that I was feeling, which was kind of the point.
“Marijuana is different, that actually did help me.”
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The Q&A came a month after the highly-anticipated book, which details how the young Prince dealt with the death of his mum Princess Diana, was released.
Harry also hit out at his family, accusing his brother Prince William of physically attacking him and King Charles of refusing to hug him after Diana died.
The Duke of Sussex’s controversial memoir has become the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the UK since records began in 1998.
During the chat, Harry was joined by Dr Gabor Maté, an expert in trauma and childhood development, to discuss living with loss and the importance of personal healing.
As well as a renowned speaker, Dr Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture, a book investigating the connection between mental and physical health.
Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when the duke was just 12 years old.
In Spare, which was written with the help of a ghost writer, Harry described how difficult it was to deal with her death and he described the princess as his “guardian angel” and said she is with him “all the time”.
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Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen, died in September 2022, the year after the death of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh.
The duke and his wife, Meghan, have also spoken about the baby they lost when the duchess suffered a miscarriage in the summer of 2020, a year after her first son Archie was born.
During the event the Prince answered pre-submitted questions from the audience which were read out by the moderator.
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Tickets costed £17 plus a £2.12 fee for UK customers, which included a copy of the book.
Harry hasn’t revealed how much cash he made from the book, however he has given some of the profits to charity.
The memoir, which hit the shelves on January 10, broke the previous record of 210,506 set by the first Pinch Of Nom cookbook – written by Kay Allinson – in 2019.
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Spare, which was ghostwritten by JR Moehringer, is the only non-fiction book to make it into the top 10 fastest-selling books in the UK since records began.
Today’s event was produced by Random House, the publisher behind Harry’s book’ in partnership with Barnes & Noble, Waterstones and Indigo Books & Music.