Prins Harry heeft vertelt hoe hij uiteindelijk is omgegaan met het verlies van zijn moeder, prinses Diana. Hij zei tegen de Telegraph dat hij zijn verdriet opkropte en pas aan het einde van zijn twintiger jaren zijn emoties had verwerkt.

'I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,' legt hij uit.

'I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.'

Fun, Child, Leisure, Smile, pinterest

Harry was 12 toen zijn moeder in 1997 overleed tijdens een tragisch auto ongeluk.

'My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?,' vertelt hij.

'(I thought) it's only going to make you sad, it's not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like: "Right, don't ever let your emotions be part of anything."'

Zijn emoties bleven hem toch achtervolgen en uiteindelijk kon hij ze niet meer onderdrukken.

'And then [I] started to have a few conversations and actually all of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, there is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with,' aldus de prins.

Public space, Leisure, Swing, Sitting, Baby & toddler clothing, Outdoor play equipment, Human settlement, Spring, Play, Playground, pinterest

Hij begon met bokslessen, wat 'm hielp bij zijn agressie. Ook ging hij op aanraden van broer William in therapie.

'It's all about timing. And for me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying: "this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it's OK,"' vertelt Harry.

'The timing wasn't right. You need to feel it in yourself, you need to find the right person to talk to as well.'

Samen met zijn oudere broer en schoonzus heeft Harry nu een organisatie opgericht voor mentale welgesteldheid. Het heet Heads Together. 'Because of the process I have been through over the past two and a half years, I've now been able to take my work seriously, been able to take my private life seriously as well, and been able to put blood, sweat and tears into the things that really make a difference and things that I think will make a difference to everybody else,' aldus de prins.

Van: Harper's BAZAAR UK