Prince Harry says his life is ‘like Truman Show’ in the royal family in candid podcast interview
Harry bares his soul: Prince reveals he wanted to quit royal life in his early 20s because of ‘what it did to mum’, Meghan told him to have therapy and compares his life to the Truman Show in 90-minute long mental health podcast interview with Dax Shepard
- Prince Harry, 36, has appeared on A-list actor Dax Shepherd’s podcast in LA before it moves to Spotify
- Compared his life to ‘the Truman Show’ film starring Jim Carrey or being an animal being watched in a zoo
- Duke revealed he and Meghan Markle, 39, met secretly in supermarket when she first visited him in London
- He said: ‘I had a baseball cap on, texting each other from the other side of the aisles, trying to stay incognito’
- Harry spoke about mental health and having therapy after advice from Meghan who saw he was angry
- When asked if he was ‘in a cage’ as a royal he said: ‘It’s the job right? You grin and bear it. You get on with it’
- Duke told Armchair Expert’ show that in his 20s that he ‘didn’t want the job’ of being a full time royal
Prince Harry today poured his heart out to a US mental health podcast where he admitted he wanted to quit the Royal Family in his ‘early 20s’ because of ‘what it did to my mum’ and revealed that his wife Meghan had encouraged him to have therapy and had herself now concluded: ‘You don’t need to be a princess’.
The Duke of Sussex told Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ that he was so desperate to hide his relationship with Meghan when she stayed at Kensington Palace for the first time that they went ‘incognito’ to the supermarket and ‘pretended we didn’t know each other’, texting shopping list items from different aisles.
Speaking with a slight American twang to his British accent, Harry said his life was like The Truman Show – when Jim Carrey’s character discovers his life is a TV drama – as he discussed his emotional state and how he started therapy after Meghan ‘saw he was angry’.
Dax asked him what it’s like being in a ‘tiny group’ of royals ‘watched by millions’, to which Harry replied: ‘Yep, it’s a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo’.
When asked if he felt ‘in a cage’ while in royal duties, he said: ‘It’s the job right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early twenties and I was thinking 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, how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it’s going to happen again’.
He added that his frame of mind was: ‘I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works and I don’t want to be part of this’, before revealing he had therapy after meeting Meghan, which ‘burst’ a bubble and he decided to ‘stop complaining’.
The royal is understood to have met his friend Dax Shepard more than a decade ago and agreed to support his popular podcast about mental health and ‘the messiness of being human’, including addiction. Harry’s appearance may also be linked to the podcast’s move to Spotify in July because the Sussexes have also signed a multi-million dollar deal with the streaming firm.
Baring his soul, 36-year-old Harry, who is currently living in his $14million Californian mansion with his wife and son, said he was born into extraordinary privilege but hinted that he believes this has changed since he quit with Meghan last year, comparing it to Oprah Winfrey’s humble beginnings. He said: ‘I truly believe you can move along the spectrum as well, wherever you were born you may start in one place but that will change over time’.
The prince also revealed his wife told him of her experience of royal life: ‘You don’t need to be a princess, you can create the life that will be better than any princess’, adding: ‘We got together and she was like ‘wow, this is very different to what my friends at the beginning said it would be’.’
Harry took part in another bombshell interview, which also revealed:
- Prince Harry says he was ‘more free’ since his move to LA with Meghan, who he says encouraged him to have therapy because he would get ‘angry’ about things he couldn’t control. He said: ‘She could tell that I was hurting’;
- Meghan advised him: ‘You don’t need to be a princess, you can create your own life better than any princess’
- He suffered ‘vile and toxic abuse’ by trolls, saying he tries to have ‘compassion’ for them but this is ‘really hard when you’re on the receiving end’;
- Duke knew in his 20s that he ‘didn’t want the job’ of being a full time royal, also speaking about infamous incident of playing naked billiards in Las Vegas before serving in Afghanistan;
- When asked if people he met on royal trips to poorer areas ‘had more freedom than he did’, he said: ‘It’s the job right? You grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was thinking I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this’;
Prince Harry, 36, has compared his life to the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show in a new interview with a podcast that has been bought up by Spotify,
Meghan Markle wass pictured at Whole Foods store on Kensington High Street when she was staying with Harry at his palace
Dax Shepard, who is married to actress Kristen Bell, runs the popular podcasts that interviews stars in America. It’s been bought up by Spotify, who have done a deal with the Sussexes
Prince Harry: My life is like The Truman Show
Harry admitted his life was like The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey and Natascha McElhone was a huge hit, nominated for three oscars.
The blockbuster follows a man who is unaware that he is living in a reality show, played by Jim Carrey.
Chosen out of six unwanted pregnancies to be the first child legally adopted by a corporation, Truman is unaware that his daily life is broadcast continuously around the world.
He has a job in the insurance business and a wife, but he eventually notices that his environment is not what it seems to be and that everyone in the show is an actor apart from him.
Once he cottons on he is repeatedly thwarted until he manages to escape, saying his catchphrase: “In case I don’t see you… good afternoon, good evening, and good night”, bowing to his audience and walking off set to cheers from viewers around the globe.
During the 90-minute interview Mr Shepard, who is married to Frozen star Kristen Bell and spoke about his own addiction to smoking crack and alcohol, asked him if he had done ‘mundane things’, such as going to the supermarket.
He said: ‘The first time Meghan and I met up for her to come and stay with me, we met up in a supermarket in London, pretending we didn’t know each other, texting each other from the other side of the aisles. There’s people looking at me, giving me all these weird looks, and coming up to me and saying “hi”. I texted her saying “is this the right one”, and she said “no you want parchment paper”, and I’m like “where’s the parchment paper?!”.
He added: ‘I had baseball cap on, looking down at the floor, trying to stay incognito. It’s amazing how much chewing gum you see, it’s a mess’.
Harry did not say which supermarket he visited but in November 2016, Meghan was spotted leaving a Whole Foods store in West London, just a few hundred yards from Kensington Palace. Harry was also a regular, although the high-end food shop is unlikely to have much chewing gum stuck to its floors.
The Duke appearance on ‘Armchair Expert’, hosted by Shepard and Monica Padman, may be linked to its move to Spotify from July. Harry and Meghan have signed a multi-million dollar deal with the streaming firm for their own Archewell Audio channel.
Harry admitted that he was a privileged, but that this can change, pointing to the rise of the couple’s friend Oprah Winfrey, who interviewed them earlier this year.
He said: ‘If Oprah is at one end, I am on the other based on my privilege and upbringing and Oprah’s at the opposite end, then every single one of us is somewhere along there’.
But he added: ‘By the way I truly believe you can move along the spectrum as well, wherever you were born you may start in one place but that will change over time’.
In the interview the Duke says compares his life to the film where every second of a man’s life is scrutinised, filmed, controlled and broadcast to the world.
Harry, pictured in Chelsea, London, said his life was like being in The Truman Show
Discussing how his mental health struggles were dealt with when he was a child, he said: ‘[I was told] You need help. As a case of, not weakness but ‘I don’t know how to deal with this. You’re unhinged, you’re not very well, go and seek help’.
He said it had caused him to ‘object and run away’, saying: ‘Everyone of us will try to find some way to mask the actual feeling and try to feel different than how we actually feel.’
He said as a child he had ‘rejected’ the feelings, saying he had pretended he felt ‘fine.’
At the start of the discussion, Harry explained: ‘I didn’t realise it was an interview. Was I nervous? No I wasn’t so much nervous but I guess on this particular subject around mental health.
‘For me, unfortunately in today’s world it’s quite a sensitive subject, not just for people who are sharing, but ultimately the subject matter itself it has to be handled with care.
‘When it ends up getting weaponised by certain people you can’t predict it. It doesn’t worry me anymore.’
Monica Padman asked him if he felt ‘in a cage’ while in royal duties. She said: ‘When you talk about going to the Commonwealth and empathising with all these people in worse situations than you – but you were in a horrible situation too and had to walk around with a smile and be the person comforting (them) but in some ways those people had more freedom than you did’.
Harry responded: ‘It’s the job right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early twenties and I was thinking 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, how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it’s going to happen again.
‘I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works and I don’t want to be part of this.
‘And then once I started doing therapy it was like the bubble was burst. I plucked my head out of the sand and gave it a good shake off and I was like, you’re in this position of privilege, stop complaining and stop thinking you want something different – make this different – because you can’t get out. How are you going to do these things differently, how are you going to make your mum proud and use this platform to really affect change.
‘Looking back I realise that helping other people, helped me’. He added: ‘Once you’ve suffered you don’t want other people to suffer’, adding: ‘I’m feeling s**t, what am I going to do, I’m going to help my neighbour and have a really good day’.
Meghan told Prince Harry: ‘You don’t need to be a princess, you can create the life that will be better’
Prince Harry has revealed that Meghan Markle gave him words of advice on Royal life and told him: ‘You can create the life better than any princess.’
The Duke of Sussex, 36, told Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ show about his wife Meghan’s ‘most amazing explanation’ as he spoke about life as a ‘fairytale’ royal compared to the reality.
Speaking in a 90-minute interview on the podcast, Prince Harry was asked by the US host, who is married to Frozen star Kristen Bell, about what it was like growing up as a royal – and how it compared to the portrayal of princes and princesses in movies.
‘My wife had the most amazing explanation,’ the duke explained. ‘You don’t need to be a princess, you can create the life that will be better than any princess.
Prince Harry, 36, has revealed that Meghan Markle gave him words of advice on Royal life and told him: ‘You can create the life better than any princess.’ Pictured, during a video message at played at Global Citizen VAX Live on the night of May 8, 2021
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured) walk down the west steps of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, on May 19, 2018
‘It’s something like that. And that’s coming from her own lived experience.’
Prince Harry went on to say how he would watch Disney films growing up just like other young children.
Host Dax went on to say how that must’ve been ‘bizarre,’ especially when the ‘ultimate prize was to become royalty’ but in reality, it actually didn’t feel ‘all that euphoric’.
The Duke of Sussex responded: ‘I do think that the old way of thinking – of the prince and princess – with all these little girls reading these wonderful fairytales going “all I want to be is a princess.”‘
However, Harry went on: ‘and I’m thinking…’ before squirming – as the host jumps in adding ‘It’s not so rad!’
Harry says it is hard to forgive trolls who have him ‘vile and toxic abuse’
During the interview, he also said he and Meghan Markle first met up in a supermarket – and ‘pretended’ they didn’t know each other to avoid attracting attention
Elsewhere in the interview, Harry said he had been on the end of ‘vile, toxic abuse’ online, saying he asked himself about trolls: ‘What made you want to come at me like that, when clearly we’ve never met?’
He called hatred a ‘form of project’ which came from ‘unresolved pain’, saying: ‘ultimately there’s a source to it.’
He added that there was ‘certain corners of the media’ who questioned ‘if he is privileged how could he be suffering’.
He said: ‘[People say] How bad can it be? You had people running around and doing this and that…
‘I was born into privilege but it gave me a front row seat – my education was not in school but was in meeting people across the Commonwealth.’
Harry said: ‘I know people are looking at me saying, you’re a prince, you’re from a palace, where’s your crown and where’s your cape?
‘The reality is, meeting people from all around the world puts it into context.’
He said he doesn’t see sharing his mental health struggles as ‘complaining’, and said he was determined to ‘have a positive impact on somebody’s life.’
He explained: ‘You have to listen to your body, otherwise you’re just cruising around with your fingers in your ears, ‘lalalaa.”
He said: ‘To me it’s so fascinating to hear of someone’s struggles…and then tracing it back to, what happened to you, not what is wrong with you.’
Prince Harry went on to speak about the pressures he felt as a royal living in the UK, saying: ‘Just because I’m a well known person, I can’t go outside.
‘It’s really really sad and their argument is from the paparazzi and everyone else, if you’re in a public space it’s absolutely fine for us to do.
‘So what is our human right, as an individual and a family if you’re saying from the moment we step out of our house, that it’s open season and free game – what, because of public interest?
‘There’s no public interest in you taking your kids for a walk down the beach. Nothing, it’s not news. This is my issue with it, news should stay is news.
‘What is happening in today’s world is that news has been hijacked and used to commercially benefit a small group of people, so this sort of rabid, feeding frenzy, and going back to the kids point, it’s absolutely true, these kids don’t get a choice, they don’t get a say in it and if it becomes any worse, then what you’re basically accepting is, anyone with a talent… let’s punish people who have got a talent and have literally worked their asses off to get to a point where yes they’re making money, their fans are contributing that but they’re bringing entertainment value to society.’
‘So his 16-bathroom home isn’t privilege?’ Royal expert blasts ‘victim’ Prince Harry after he tells Dax Shepard’s podcast ‘you may start in one place but can change overtime’
Prince Harry was today blasted by a royal expert for being ‘the victim again’ after saying that he was born into extraordinary privilege – before hinting that he believes this has changed since he quit royal life with Meghan Markle last year.
The Duke of Sussex revealed that when he and Meghan first started dating they ‘pretended they didn’t know each other’ in a supermarket to hide their relationship.
In a wide-ranging interview he also admitted to hating royal life so much he wanted to quit in his 20s and that Meghan has concluded: ‘You don’t need to be a princess.’
Harry also said of privilege: ‘I truly believe you can move along the spectrum as well, wherever you were born you may start in one place but that will change over time’.
He told Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ show that the couple tried to stay ‘incognito’ during his wife’s first trip to stay with him in London in 2016, where he lived at Kensington Palace, texting items for their shopping list from across food aisles.
Harry also compared his life as a mixture of The Truman Show – when Jim Carrey’s character discovers his life is a TV show – and being an animal at the zoo.
But royal author Angela Levin, who wrote 2018 book Harry: Conversations with the Prince, tweeted this afternoon: ‘Harry’s the victim again on Dax Shepard’s podcast.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex speak to Oprah Winfrey in an interview first aired on March 7
‘Reveals he and Meg pretended not to know each other in a supermarket and that although he was born into privilege now believes “you may start in one place but you can change in time”. So his 16-bathroom home isn’t privilege.’
Ms Levin was referring to the couple’s £11million mansion in Montecito, California, where they have been living since last summer as after stepping down as senior royals at the start of last year.
During the podcast, the Duke also said: ‘If Oprah is at one end, I am on the other based on my privilege and upbringing. And Oprah’s at the opposite end, then every single one of us is somewhere along there.
‘By the way I truly believe you can move along the spectrum as well – wherever you were born you may start in one place but that will change overtime.’
Royal author Angela Levin, who wrote the 2018 book Harry: Conversations with the Prince
During the 90-minute interview Mr Shepard, who is married to Frozen star Kristen Bell and spoke about his own addiction to smoking crack, asked him if he had done ‘mundane things’, such as going to the supermarket.
He said: ‘The first time Meghan and I met up for her to come and stay with me, we met up in a supermarket in London, pretending we didn’t know each other, texting each other from the other side of the aisles.
‘There’s people looking at me, giving me all these weird looks, and coming up to me and saying ‘hi’. I texted her saying ‘is this the right one’, and she said ‘no you want parchment paper’, and I’m like ‘where’s the parchment paper?!’.
He added: ‘I had baseball cap on, looking down at the floor, trying to stay incognito. It’s amazing how much chewing gum you see, it’s a mess’.
Harry did not say which supermarket he visited but in November 2016, Meghan was spotted leaving a Whole Foods store in West London, just a few hundred yards from Kensington Palace.
Harry was also a regular, although the high-end food shop is unlikely to have much chewing gum stuck to its floors.
When asked if he felt ‘in a cage’ while in royal duties, he said: ‘It’s the job right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early twenties and I was thinking 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, how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it’s going to happen again’.
He added: ‘I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works and I don’t want to be part of this’, before revealing he had therapy after meeting Meghan, which ‘burst’ a bubble and he decided to ‘stop complaining’.
