Prince Harry has received a swell of public support after opening about about his mental health following the death of his mother.
Speaking to Bryony Gordon’s Mad World podcast, Harry revealed he sought counselling after two years of “total chaos” having spent nearly 20 years “not thinking” about the death of Princess Diana.
Harry was 12 years old when Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in 1997, but he said it was not until his late 20s that he processed the grief.
Harry’s openness on the subject has won huge public support.
Writer Felicity Morse said the interview was a “wonderful move to tackle stigma”, while actress Rebecca Front said it “might help dispel the myth that emotions aren’t ‘manly’”.
Another Twitter user, Peter Carter, said Harry was “an inspiration to us all”.
Prince Harry talking about needing to see a counsellor is absolutely wonderful move to tackle stigma. And a massive deal. Kudos to him.
— Felicity Morse (@FelicityMorse) April 17, 2017
So impressed by this from Prince Harry. Things like this go a long way in helping people's (esp men's) mental health https://t.co/eFicTYV0kw
— Andrea Mann ?? (@AndreaMann) April 17, 2017
Putting aside my many issues with the concept of royalty, fair play to Prince Harry for talking about his mental health openly. It helps.
— Chris Brosnahan (@ChrisBrosnahan) April 17, 2017
Bravo Prince Harry, can sympathise fully, doesn't matter who you are, wealth or background grief is grief and left unattended is dangerous X
— Sally Price (@SallyPrice4) April 17, 2017
Bless Prince Harry for speaking openly to @bryony_gordon about his mental health.Might help dispel the myth that emotions aren't 'manly'.
— Rebecca Front (@RebeccaFront) April 17, 2017
Well done Prince Harry on such an honest account of his struggle to come to terms with his mothers death. He is an inspiration to us all
— Peter carter (@DrCarterp118) April 17, 2017
Harry, 32, told the Daily Telegraph: “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. So from an emotional side, I was like ‘right, don’t ever let your emotions be part of anything’.
“So I was a typical 20, 25, 28-year-old running around going ‘life is great’, or ‘life is fine’ and that was exactly it.
“And then (I) started to have a few conversations and actually all of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, there is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with.”
He said he shut down his emotions after Diana’s death which had “a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well”.
The prince said he sought help after his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, told him: “Look, you really need to deal with this. It is not normal to think that nothing has affected you.”
