Prince Harry opens up about his mental health issues following his mother's death

Proving that the younger generation of royals are as open as ever, Prince Harry has revealed all about his struggles following his mother Diana’s death in 1997.

Appearing as the first guest on The Telegraph‘s Mad World podcast, the royal revealed he only sought counselling a decade after the tragic accident.

Despite being encouraged by Prince William, Harry stated that he “shut down all his emotions” for a long time and only spoke to a professional when he felt the timing was right.

“It’s all about timing. And for me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it’s OK,” he told Bryony Gordon.

“The timing wasn’t right. You need to feel it in yourself, you need to find the right person to talk to as well.”

Harry spoke of dealing with grief from the loss of his mother, saying: “My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help? [I thought] it’s only going to make you sad, it’s not going to bring her back.”

He also revealed that he had been close to a breakdown on a number of public royal engagements, saying that losing Diana “had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well.”

“I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”

The royal admitted he was “a little nervous” about opening up but wanted “to encourage people to have that conversation because you will be surprised how much support you get and how many people literally are longing for you to come out.”

Harry appeared on the podcast as part of his, Kate and William’s Heads Together initiative. The organisation brings together a number of charities in order to raise awareness of and open up the conversation surrounding mental health.

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