Prince Harry Opens Up About Princess Diana's Death

Prince Harry struggled with true pain and grief as a child.

The British royal spoke candidly in a new interview with his friend and Paralympic medal winner Dave Henson on Forces TV. And during their conversation, he revealed for the first time that he suffered panic attacks following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was only 12 years old.

"In my case, suit and tie, every single time I was in any room with loads of people, which is quite often, I was just pouring with sweat, like heart beating — boom, boom, boom, boom — and literally just like a washing machine," the 32-year-old said, adding, "I was like, 'Oh my God, get me out of here now. Oh, hang on, I can't get out of here, I have got to just hide it.'" 

As he expressed, his tours in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2012-2013 were what pushed him to finally seek help. "I've got plenty of issues but none of them really relate to Afghanistan," he said. "But Afghanistan was the thing that triggered everything else."

"Not to get too personal," the war vet added, "if you lose your mum at the age of 12, you have got to deal with it, and the idea that...15, 17 years later I still hadn't dealt with it, Afghan was the moment where I was like, 'Right, deal with it.'"

Prince Harry continued, "Once I plucked my head out of the sand, post-Afghan...it had a huge, life changing moment for me, as well. It was like, 'Right, you are Prince Harry, you can do this, as long are you're not a complete t**, then you're gonna be able to get that support, because you've got the credibility of 10 years' service and therefore, you can really make a difference.'"

As Nicki Swift previously reported, Prince Harry first opened up about his struggle to truly process his grief on the Mad World podcast in April 2017. As he admitted then, he sought therapy when he was 28 years old after spending much of his 20s in "total chaos." He now says he is in a "good place."

Prince Harry: My Journey will air on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 8 p.m. in the UK on Forces TV.