Prince Harry reveals he turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with Princess Diana’s death

Prince Harry has revealed he turned to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism in the years after Princess Diana’s death.

Prince Harry has admitted to taking drugs and regularly “drinking a week’s worth of alcohol in one day” to “mask the pain” of his mother Princess Diana’s death.

The Duke of Sussex, 36, opened up about his struggles with his mental wellbeing and the trauma that haunted him after the 1997 death of Diana, while speaking in the documentary The Me You Can’t See, which he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey.

Harry also launched blistering attacks on the royal family and their failure to support him when he was growing up.

The Prince says he was never given the space or time to mourn his mother’s death, which led to him eventually turning to alcohol and drugs to numb his lingering pain.

Harry said he would try to “feel less” of what he was feeling, and would abstain from drinking all week and then drink “a week’s worth” in one sitting as a coping mechanism.

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Prince Harry in The Me You Can't See. Picture: Apple TV

“I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling”, the Duke admitted.

“But I slowly became aware that, okay, I wasn’t drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night.

“And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.”

When he was 17, Harry was reportedly sent to rehab by Charles after he was caught smoking cannabis.

Young Princes Harry and William in 2006. Picture: Carl de Souza/AFP

St James’s Palace later confirmed that Harry had “experimented with the drug on several occasions” but said he was not a ”regular” user.

The five-part celebrity-packed docuseries, also featuring Lady Gaga and Glenn Close, was released on AppleTV+ on Friday.

Harry revealed that he’d been in therapy for “four or five years”, while also opening up about turning his back on the UK and his family to ”break the cycle” of grief being passed down the generations.

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A 2006 front page story of Prince Harry partying.

The Duke blasted his dad Charles, saying he did little to help him through his struggles.

“My father used to say to me when I was younger, he used to say to both William and I, ‘Well, it was like that for me so it’s going to be like that for you.’

“That doesn’t make sense. Just because you suffered, that doesn’t mean your kids have to suffer. Actually quite the opposite.

“If you suffered, do everything you can to make sure that whatever negative experiences you had, you can make it right for your kids.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission