PRINCE Harry has said he will “never be bullied into silence again” in a swipe at the Queen after Megxit.
The Duke of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey in his new documentary The Me You Don’t See he felt compelled to step away from the Royal Family as he was “controlled through fear” and told not to talk about his “trauma”.
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest updates
Speaking during the Apple TV docuseries, Harry said he did not go to his family when wife Meghan Markle felt suicidal because he was ashamed the situation had got “that bad”.
The duke said he also suspected the royals would not have been able to help.
The 36-year-old said: “That was one of the biggest reasons to leave, feeling trapped and feeling controlled through fear, both by the media and by the system itself which never encouraged the talking about this kind of trauma.
“Certainly now I will never be bullied into silence.”
During the programme he accused his family of “total neglect” when he reached out to try and get help for Meghan, then pregnant with their son Archie.
“I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is just got met with total silence, total neglect,” he said.
“We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job.”
He singled out his dad Charles for particular condemnation – saying he did little to help him through his struggles.
The duke said: “My father used to say to me when I was younger, he used to say to both William and I, ‘Well, it was like that for me, so it’s going to be like that for you’.
“That doesn’t make sense. Just because you suffered, that doesn’t mean your kids have to suffer. Actually quite the opposite.
“If you suffered, do everything you can to make sure that whatever negative experiences you had, you can make it right for your kids.”
Harry revealed that he was told to “play the game” and his life would be easier, but he felt he had to “break out”.
“I’ve got a hell of a lot of my mum in me. The only way to free yourself and break out is to tell the truth.”
Prince Harry also spoke about:
- Prince Charles not ‘making it right’ for him and brother Prince William after their mother’s car crash death in 1997
- Turning to drinking and drugs in his late 20s, admitting: ‘I would drink a week’s worth in one day’
- The public being allowed to mourn his mother Princess Diana, while he was not
- How he’s convinced the media ‘will not stop’ until wife Meghan Markle ‘dies’
- How Meghan resisted suicidal thoughts because she knew it would be ‘unfair’ for Harry to lose another woman in his life
- How some of Archie’s first words were “grandma Diana”
He added: “We chose to put our mental health first.
“That’s what we’re doing. And that’s what we will continue to do. 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.”
The prince said he was never given the space or the time to really mourn his mother’s death, and that led him drink and drugs to numb his lingering pain.
Harry said he would try to “feel less” of what he was feeling and would abstain from drinking all week and then drink “a week’s worth” in one sitting as a coping mechanism.
When asked whether anyone around him discussed Diana’s death, he said: “No one was talking about it.”
Royal expert Robert Jobson praised Harry for “getting his voice across” but said courtiers at Buckingham Palace don’t agree.
Speaking on Good Morning America today, he said: “I think it is great that Harry is getting his voice across. He believes it’s the right thing to do.
“But of course many people at Buckingham Palace, courtiers, do not think it is the right thing to do and would like to silence him as well.”
The five-part celebrity-packed doc was released on Apple TV in the US on Thursday night and the UK on Friday morning.
