Prince Harry has revealed what drove him to drug use again at the start of the pandemic

Prince Harry has revealed the moment that drove him to turn back to drugs at the start of the Covid pandemic.

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Prince Harry resorted to smoking marijuana after officially breaking from the royal family and bunking down at the home of an American actor.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, when Harry and his wife Meghan walked away from their royal roles, they temporarily moved into the Los Angeles house owned by their friend Tyler Perry while he was travelling.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been desperate to find a safe place to live after losing their taxpayer-funded security detail, despite their head of security pleading with his superiors.

“We can’t just leave them here,” he had emailed to his bosses, to no avail.

Perry came to the rescue, saying his home would “keep you safe”. Harry agreed, finding the property to be “palatial, but above all ultra-safe”.

Prince Harry interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. Picture: CBS.

“Better yet, it came with security, paid for by Tyler,” the Duke of Sussex wrote in his memoir Spare.

“Late at night with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows.”

“Then I’d sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint.”

But his comfort in California faded within six weeks when the paparazzi discovered where and Meghan were staying.

“Suddenly there were drones overhead, paps across the street,” Harry said.

“They cut the fence. We patched the fence. We stopped venturing outside. The garden was in full view of the paps.”

“Next came the helicopters.”

Cut off from the royal family and again looking for a place to live, Harry said he felt like he was in an “unending Truman Show”.

HOW HARRY POT-SMOKER BECAME THE HALF-PRICE PRINCE

Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare launched with a bang but has already ended up with a bargain basement price sticker.

The tell-all tome has been slashed by up to 50 per cent in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia despite topping sales charts amid a week-long blitz of chapter leaks and media interviews ahead of the official launch.

With Prince Harry reportedly striking a $A58 million ($US40m) four-book deal with Penguin Random House, the Duke would need to sell about a million copies at the recommended retail price of $59.99 to break even.

But even before the release, Australian retailers like Dymocks and Big W were offering pre-orders at a 41 per cent discount at $A35.

The launch of Prince Harry's memoir "Spare" is seen in a store window in London. Photo: Getty Images

The 416-page book was released in 16 languages, with the publisher said to be printing 2.5 million hardcover copies for North America alone.

At US retailers, Spare was slashed by 38 per cent from $US36 to $US22 ($A51 to $A31) at Amazon and Target, and 30 per cent on Barnes & Nobel from $US36 to $US25 ($A51 to $A36).

Have you pre-ordered your copy of Spare yet?
Select Express Delivery to get your copy on Tuesday: https://t.co/xLzOumAVi3#[e-mail]/cFLVFUhrd0

— WHSmith (@WHSmith) January 8, 2023

In the UK, the recommended retail price of £28 ($A50) was cut in half to £14 ($A25) four days before the release at major bookstores including Amazon, Waterstones and WH Smith, which opened for a midnight release.

The pre-orders coincided with the early release of the book in Spain before hitting shelves around the world, revealing Prince Harry’s shocking claims against the Royal family before his planned public relations campaign with interviews on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, and ITV.

The Fab Four in 2018, before the breakdown in the Royal family chronicled in Spare. Picture: Getty Images

Despite the chaotic rollout, Spare topped the bestseller lists of online retailers, while wholesalers ReaderLink and Ingram ordered 300,000 and 90,000 for their warehouses to resupply big box retailers like Target and Walmart, according to The New York Times.

Barnes & Noble and Waterstones ordered hundreds of thousands of copies as CEO James Daunt expected sales to “blow up” amid leaks driving up anticipation among the public.

“Customer preorders have been crazy,” Mr Daunt told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s going to blow up because people are interested.”

“Depending on which side of the divide you sit, they have an important story to tell, or, if you believe the characterisation of them put forth by the British tabloid press, the royal family is being hard done by. I haven’t met many who don’t have a polarised view, and that means they’re going to want to read the book,” he added.