Harry regrets years of silence about his mother’s death
PRINCE HARRY has said he regrets not opening up sooner about how his mother’s death affected him.
The 31-year-old only began speaking three years ago about the loss of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Prince was 12 years old and his brother Prince William was 15 when their mother was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
The BBC said the Prince was asked by footballer Rio Ferdinand, whose wife died last year, about how it would affect his children, and replied: “I really regret not ever talking about it.” Prince Harry said that he did not speak about his loss “for the first 28 years of my life”. He added: “It’s OK to suffer, as long as you talk about it.
“It’s not a weakness. Weakness is having a problem and not recognising it and not solving that problem.”
Prince Harry made the comments while hosting an event in Kensington Palace for mental health charity Heads Together. It was attended by a number of sports stars who spoke about their psychological problems.
Founded by Harry with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Heads To- gether has joined eight mental health charities and organisations in tackling the stigma around depression and other psychological problems. He said the event was an opportunity to show that “unflappable” sporting personalities can suffer from mental health problems like everyone else.
“A lot of people think that if you’ve got a job, if you’ve got financial security, if you’ve got a family, you’ve got a house, all that sort of stuff, that is all you need and you are absolutely fine to deal with stuff,” he said.
Among the guests were former England defender Rio Ferdinand and Ol- ympic gold medallists Victoria Pendleton and Dame Kelly Holmes, who were all accompanied by someone who had helped them through their problems. Ferdinand, a father-of-three, said of the Prince: “He’s gone through different stages in his life that my kids are going to be going towards. So to get some of his experiences is very rewarding for me and very educational.”
Prince Harry added: “The key message here today is that everyone can suffer from mental health.
“Whether you’re a member of the Royal family, whether you’re a soldier, whether you’re a sports star, whether you’re in a team sport, individual sport, whether you’re a white van driver, whether you’re a mother, father, a child, it doesn’t really matter.”
He later told BBC Breakfast that if more public figures spoke out about their problems, it should open the way for everybody else to do so.
“You can be as tough as you want on the exterior, and you can be someone who never shows any emotion, but inside there’s all sorts of stuff going on,” he said. I think we need to accept that that’s the reality of life.”