Prince Harry is slowly stepping back into the spotlight. Though the Duke of Sussex has been seen in various virtual appearances since moving to California with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and his son Archie, he has kept a relatively low profile until recently.
Now that he and Meghan’s resignation as a senior working royal is official and they are set to press forward with their interview with Oprah Winfrey and their multi-million dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify, the prince is getting candid in a way that we’ve never seen him before.
Prince Harry just took the British media to task about their role in destroying his mental health and leading him to Megxit.
Why did Prince Harry leave the British royal family?
Looking back, it’s no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan were having major difficulty trying to find their footing in the royal spotlight. The Sussexes were constantly pitted against Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Moreover, the press was particularly critical of Meghan, a mixed-race American outsider, who’d left the prince smitten. While the duo tried to put a spin on what it means to be royal, the media constantly attacked the duchess in particular with racist and sexist remarks. In the end, Prince Harry decided that it wasn’t worth it.
In a shocking turn of events in January 2020, the pair announced they would be resigning from their royal roles. At the time, Prince Harry gave some insight into his decision.
“The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly,” Prince Harry said in a speech during a reception for his charity, Sentebale at the time. “It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I haven’t always got it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option.”
Prince Harry has always had a tense relationship with the media
Prince Harry had his issues with the media long before he met Meghan in the summer of 2016. As a child, he watching the press hound his mother, Princess Diana at every turn. Also, he’s never gotten over the fact that she died in a car crash after being chased through the streets of Paris by the paparazzi, and that photogs took her photograph as she laid dying in the street instead of helping her.
During his teen years, the prince was also subject to media scrutiny, being labeled as the ‘bad boy” prince. It’s also known that the media bugged his phone in his early 20s.
“You’ve looked out for me for so long, but the media is a powerful force, and my hope is one day our collective support for each other can be more powerful because this is so much bigger than just us,” he said in his speech.
Prince Harry said the British media was destroying his mental health
During a surprise appearance on The Late Late Show on Feb. 25, 2021, the prince spoke with James Corden about how the media affected his mental health.
“It was a really difficult environment, as I think a lot of people saw. We all know what the British press can be like. It was destroying my mental health,” the Duke of Sussex explained. “I was like, ‘This is toxic,’ so I did what any husband and what any father would do which is, ‘I need to get my family out of here,’ but we never walked away.”
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