Prince Harry Likens His Childhood To ‘Being In A Zoo’

Prince Harry opened up about his childhood and upbringing in a new interview with Dax Shepard on the podcast Armchair Expert. The Duke of Sussex noted the cycle of “pain and suffering” in his family on the episode released Thursday.

“When it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on,” he said. “It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say ‘you know what, that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.'”

Harry said he realized once he was older that his father, Prince Charles, raised him similarly to the way he was raised.

“I never saw it, I never knew about it, and then suddenly I started to piece it together and go, ‘Ok, so this is where he went to school, this is what happened, I know this about his life, I also know that is connected to his parents so that means he’s treated me the way he was treated, so how can I change that for my own kids?” Harry said.

Prince Harry previously said that his father stopped taking his calls when he and his wife, Meghan Markle, chose to step down as senior working royals and move to California.

Harry talked about his wild behavior in his twenties, even joking about the leaked picture of him naked in Las Vegas. “At least I wasn’t running down the Strip,” he said. He added that it was at that time in his life that he recognized he didn’t want to do the job and responsibility he was born into.

“I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be doing this, look what it did to my mum,” Harry said he recalled thinking.

Harry talked about the media in the U.K. and how they treated his family, comparing it to a mix between the film The Truman Show and being in a zoo. He discussed the fact that he and his wife tried their best to keep their early relationship out of the spotlight, even going so far as to have a date in a grocery store and wearing baseball caps so they wouldn’t be recognized.

Although critical of the press, Harry said his situation has improved since moving to the United States.

“Living here now I can actually lift my head and actually I feel different… you can walk around feeling a little bit more free,” he said. “I get to take Archie on the back of my bicycle… I would never have had the chance to do that.”

Harry also discussed his passion for mental health advocacy.

Speaking out, especially now in today’s world, is a sign of strength rather than a sign of weakness,” he said. “Two of the biggest issues that we’re facing in today’s world, I think, is the climate crisis and mental health, and they’re both intrinsically linked.”

Harry’s mention of mental health was to promote a multi-part documentary series he has been working on with Oprah Winfrey called, The Me You Can’t See. The series aims to lift the veil on the current state of mental health and emotional wellbeing. The series will premiere on May 21 on Apple TV+.

“If we neglect our collective well-being, then we’re screwed, basically, because if we can’t look after ourselves, we can’t look after each other. If we can’t look after each other then we can’t look after this home that we all inhabit, so it’s all part of the same thing,” said Harry.

This interview follows the bombshell interview harry and his wife Meghan did with Winfrey earlier this year. All these revelation follow the announcement that Harry and Meghan will not be returning as senior working royals.