Prince Harry, the younger son of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, in an interview, revealed that his mother’s death pushed him into alcohol and drugs. Diana died in a car accident in 1997 in Paris. 

After accusing the Royal Family of neglecting him and his wife Meghan as she contemplated suicide, Prince Harry went on to admit that he abused alcohol to numb the pain of his mother Diana’s death.

Also read: Prince William, Harry lash out at Princess Diana’s ‘deceitful’ 1995 interview

An independent inquiry concluded that BBC failed to adequately probe its reporter Martin Bashir’s use of forged documents to obtain the interview, in which Diana laid bare her crumbling marriage to Prince Charles.

“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,” Harry told Oprah Winfrey in an Apple TV series about mental health.

“I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night and I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something,” he said.

Also read: BBC used ‘deception’ to land 1995 Princess Diana interview, inquiry finds

Harry, 36, was 12 years old when Princess Diana died. He said that he had to stand behind his mother’s coffin in her funeral cortege under the glare of the world’s media. He said that the loss of his mother accentuated fears about his own wife Meghan when she grappled with suicidal thoughts. 

“The thing that stopped her from seeing it through was how unfair it would be on me after everything that had happened to my mum and to now be put in a position of losing another woman in my life, with a baby inside of her, our baby,” Harry said.

“I felt completely helpless. I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect,” he added.

Harry and Meghan have repeatedly criticised the royal family in public forums. The queen has said she was saddened to learn of the experiences of the couple.