Prince Harry recently opened up in a new podcast about mental health about why he and his wife, Meghan, moved to California with their son, Archie. Looking back on his childhood, Prince Harry said that he experienced “pain and suffering”, possibly being due to Prince Charles’ parenting style. He said he was eager to break the cycle for his own kids.
On the episode of Armchair Expert, Harry spoke to hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. The Duke of Sussex said there was no blame but that as he became older, he understood how Charles’ school days and own upbringing could have impacted on family life.
“I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly 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,” Harry said. “I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.”
The Duke continued, “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 continued to say that it took him some time to come to certain conclusions, “It’s hard to do but for me it comes down to awareness. 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 [Prince Charles] went to school, this is what happened’. I know about his life, I also know this 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?”
The Duke added that he never planned to move to America, but that it felt necessary in order to create a better life for Archie and Meghan, and to protect his own mental health.
“And here I am, I moved my whole family to the US, that wasn’t the plan but sometimes you’ve got to make decisions and put your family first and put your mental health first,” he said.
The royal spoke of how different life is now. He recalled that when he and Meghan first began dating they would visit supermarkets and wear baseball caps, to try and be incognito – something he’s enjoying having to do less often in his new life.
He also mentioned that moving to California has allowed him more freedom when it comes to parenting. “Living here now I can actually lift my head and I feel different, my shoulders have dropped, so have hers, you can walk around feeling a little bit more free, I can take Archie on the back of my bicycle, I would never have had the chance to do that.”
