Prince Harry: I always felt different from the rest of the family

Prince Harry said he “always felt slightly different” from his family and that his late mother felt the same way.

In an online bereavement chat, the Duke of Sussex said he feared losing his mother Diana’s memories when he started therapy.

He also said he made sure to “smother” his children with affection to avoid passing on any “trauma” or “negative experiences” from his own upbringing.

His discussion was with Dr. Gabor Maté, an author on trauma and addiction.

Their fireside chat in California followed the “living with the loss” themes of her explosive memoir, Spare.

Reflecting on the public response to the work, the Duke of Sussex insisted he was not a “victim” or seeking sympathy.

He revealed his own reaction to the publication of the controversial book was to feel “incredibly free”.

“I felt a huge weight on my shoulders,” he told Dr Mate, describing the book as an “act of service” to help others break the taboo of talking about mental health issues.

Saturday’s chat focused on the prince’s emotions, therapy and thoughts on mental health.

There was also no mention of how the royal family, including her brother, felt about her tell-all memoir.

Prince Harry has described growing up “feeling slightly different to the rest of my family” – and felt like he was living in a disconnected “bubble”, which therapy had helped him burst.

In front of an international audience online, he was asked about an emotionally distant childhood, with a lack of hugs and displays of affection.

He said that with his own children he “makes sure I shower them with love and affection”.

“As a father, I feel a huge responsibility to make sure that I don’t pass on any trauma or…negative experiences that I had as a child,” he said.

He repeatedly spoke about the importance of therapy, even though it could drive a wedge between him and other relationships.

But he said he was mistakenly worried it would erode his feelings for his mother, Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when Harry was 12.

“One of the things that scared me the most was losing the feeling I had for my mother…everything I had managed to retain from my mother,” Prince Harry said.

But he hadn’t lost those feelings and realized “that she actually just wanted me to be happy,” he told Dr Mate.

The prince said he was “eternally grateful” to his wife Meghan as he changed his perspective, calling her an “exceptional human being”.

But he said meeting Meghan had given him a “crash course” in experiencing racism, which he described as “quite shocking”.

Prince Harry has also defended the use of psychedelic medicine, saying it has helped him “deal with past trauma and pain” and is like “cleaning the windshield”.

He said taking cocaine “didn’t do anything for me” but “marijuana is different, it really helped me.”

To watch the interview online, the public had to buy a copy of Prince Harry’s best-selling memoir, which made headlines with its unprecedented account of tensions between the royal family and personal revelations.

It included allegations of a physical altercation with his brother Prince William and recorded his experiences of drug use and loss of his virginity.