Prince Harry says Meghan saved him and ayahuasca helped deal with ‘pains of the past’

Prince Harry spoke again on Saturday (4) about his differences with the British royal family, said that Meghan Markle saved him from himself and revealed that drug use helped him face his traumas. The statements were made by him during a live in which he spoke with the Hungarian-Canadian doctor Gabor Maté to promote his autobiographical book.

“My wife saved me. I was trapped in one world, and she came from a different world and helped me out of it,” he said. Harry even said that it was Meghan who urged him to take therapy more seriously. “I knew that if I didn’t go to therapy and get fixed, I was going to lose this woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” he said.

The virtual event lasted 90 minutes and could be watched by those who were willing to pay around R$ 105 for the ticket. The kind of public “therapy session” even earned Harry a diagnosis. “Reading the book, I diagnose you with Attention Deficit Disorder,” said doctor Gabor Maté, who specializes in trauma, stress and other related topics.

The health professional said he considered the disorder “a normal response” in Harry’s case, given the stress the prince has been subjected to throughout his life. Replicating the comment, Harry joked and thanked the doctor for the “free consultation”.

The Duke also spoke about his relationship with drugs and said he resorts to psychedelic substances to deal with his traumas. “[A cocaína] did nothing for me. It was more of a social thing and it gave me a sense of belonging,” he shared. “Marijuana is different, it really helped me a lot.”

Detailing his relationship with psychedelics, Harry said that substances like ayahuasca give him a feeling of “relaxation, release, comfort”. “I started doing it recreationally and then I started to realize how good it was for me. I would say that it was one of the fundamental parts of my life, it changed me and helped me to deal with the traumas and pains of the past”, he said.

During the conversation, the prince also spoke about how he identifies with his mother, Princess Diana, for not feeling part of the family in which he was born and raised. And he said that, at the time he served in the military in Afghanistan, he could be considered the ideal candidate coming from a “broken home”.

“The times I ventured out to be myself, to be the real me, whether it was through media or family or whatever, it was almost like [se dissessem]: ‘Don’t be yourself, go back to what you are expected to be'”, he said in the live.

When revisiting his trip to war, the Duke of Sussex pondered that not all combatants agreed with the existence of the conflict. “One of the reasons why so many people in the UK didn’t support our troops was because they assumed everyone serving was pro-war. But they weren’t,” he said. “You were doing what you were trained to do.”

Harry took the opportunity to respond to criticisms made of his book, “Spare” (“O que Sobra”, in the Portuguese edition), in which he reported situations in which he was supposedly passed over by the royal family. He denied that, when talking about his experiences, he had put himself in the victim role.

“Being able to share the things in my life that I consider important is good. For me, it’s like an act of service,” he said, suggesting that the world would be a better place if more people could expose the vulnerabilities experienced at home.