Prince Harry's new mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey has once again shone a light on the Royal Family, and their alleged treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
As well as accusing "The Firm" of "total silence" and "neglect" in regards to Meghan Markle, Harry spoke with refreshing honesty about his own struggles. He revealed that he turned to drink and drugs to help him contend with royal life, and the enduring grief he felt over the loss of his mother, the late Princess Diana.
However over the course of Apple TV+'s The Me You Can't See, the one common thread that the duke kept coming back to was the nature of the Royal Family, and their alleged refusal to allow change that would have helped not only Harry, Meghan and Diana — but other members of the palace too.
Below, we take a look at seven shocking claims Harry makes in the upcoming five-part series.
1. Harry accuses the Royal Family of 'neglect'
Harry claims the Royal Family of "total silence" and "neglect" when Meghan Markle was "struggling" with suicidal feelings, while she was pregnant with their first child, Archie.
This, he said, made him feel "helpless".
"Meghan decided to share with me the suicidal thoughts and the practicalities of how she was going to end her life," he told Winfrey. "I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever, it is just got met with total silence, total neglect.
"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. But Meghan was struggling. But certainly now, I will never be bullied into silence."
In the couple's initial interview with Winfrey back in March, the Duchess of Sussex was candid about her mental health, saying: "I was ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry because of how much loss he suffered.
"But I knew that if I didn’t say it I would do it – because I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. I didn’t want to be alive anymore. That was a very clear and real and frightening, constant thought. And I remember, I remember how he just cradled me."
2. 'No protection' for Diana or the young princes
Speaking about his "puzzling life", Harry asserted that "there was no protection" for Diana, or him and William as young princes.
"When I think about my mum, the first thing that comes to mind is always the same one, over and over again: strapped in the car, seatbelt across, with my brother in the car as well, and my mother driving, being chased by three, four five, mopeds, with paparazzi," he explained.
"And she was almost unable to drive because of the tears. There was no protection. One of the feelings that comes up with me all the time is the helplessness. Being too young, being a guy, but too young to help a woman, in this case, your mother. And that happened every single day. Every single day until the day she died."
3. Princess Diana's death was never spoken about
The 36-year-0ld revealed that his mother was never spoken about by the Royal Family following her death. "No one was talking about it," he asserted.
He added that he felt that there was "no justice at all" following her passing on August 31st 1997, following a car crash in Paris. "I was so angry with what happened to her and the fact that there was no justice at all," he continued.
"Nothing came from that. The same people who chased her into the tunnel, photographed her dying in the backseat of that car,” he told Winfrey, adding that he also didn’t want to think about his mother because "if I think about her, then it’s going to bring up the fact that I can’t bring her back and it’s just going to make me sad."
4. Harry turned to alcohol
The Duke of Sussex revealed that he used to drink a week's worth of alcohol in order to try to cope with the death of his mother, the Princess of Wales, as well as the "hectic" pressures of being a working royal.
Detailing "a nightmare time in my life", aged 28 to 32, Harry described experiencing panic attacks and severe anxiety. "I was just all over the place mentally," he explained. "Every time I put a suit on and tie on... having to do the role, and go, 'right, game face,' look in the mirror and say, 'let's go'. Before I even left the house I was pouring with sweat. I was in fight or flight mode."
"I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling," he continued, detailing how he would drink a week's worth of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday night, "not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.
"People who are hurt, understandably hurt, from their upbringing, their environment, what's happened to them, what they've been exposed to, what they've seen — whatever it is — if you don't transform, if you don't process it, then it ends up coming out and in all sorts of different ways and you can't control."
5. Prince Charles told him and William that the 'cycle' will never end
While the Duke of Sussex is determined to speak out in order to "end the cycle", he revealed that his father used to tell him and Prince William that it would never end.
"It’s incredibly triggering to potentially lose another woman in my life. The list is growing. And it all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry," he said. "Because 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 gonna be like that for you.'"
This is a mindset that does not resonate with the prince: "[It] doesn’t make sense. Just because you suffered, that doesn’t mean that your kids have to suffer. In fact, quite the opposite. If you’ve suffered, do whatever you can to make sure that whatever experiences, negative experiences you had, that you can make it right for your kids."
6. Harry's mental health struggles
While Harry has now undertaken extensive therapy, he told Winfrey that, "I wasn’t in an environment [in the Royal Family] where it was encouraged to not talk about it, either. That was sort of squashed."
Here, Harry is alluding to the mental health struggles he experienced while serving as a senior royal, as well as contending with the grief following his mother's passing.
The prince later sought therapy, but it was meeting Meghan that really changed things for the prince. "I saw doctors, I saw therapists, I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people. But it was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn't do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with."
7. Harry claims the royals 'smeared' him prior to his Oprah interview
Harry also claimed that The Firm attempted to discredit him and Meghan prior to their explosive CBS interview with Winfrey.
The expectant father-of-two said that Meghan woke up in their California home, "crying in her pillow", after she had read of Buckingham Palace's decision to launch a probe into bullying claims reported by 10 of their former aides — the majority of the allegations were levelled against the duchess.
"Before the Oprah interview had aired, because of their headlines and that combined effort of The Firm and the media to smear her, I was woken up in the middle of the night to her crying in her pillow – because she doesn’t want to wake me up because I’m already carrying too much," he continued. "That’s heartbreaking. I held her. We talked. She cried and she cried and she cried."
