The dynamics in any family are going to be interesting. At times, however, those dynamics become a matter of public scrutiny and that is the case with the royal family.
Nobody knows this better than Prince Harry, who decided to leave the Royal life and start a life of his own with his wife and child in America. During that time, he felt as if his mother was with him all along.
The Duke of Sussex spoke with Oprah Winfrey about those times in his life. The question was asked about how his mother, Princess Diana may have felt about his leaving the royal family. He said: “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad, but ultimately, all she’d ever want is for us to be happy.”
When Harry and his wife left the royal family, he was able to take along some $10 million after taxes. This was because his mother had left him and his brother, Prince William, money to inherit.
He said: “I’ve got what my mom left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
Harry thinks that his mother may have known that he would someday reach this point in his life. He even had an opinion on the subject, saying: “What my mum would think of this? I think she saw it coming. And I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”
Although his mother is no longer with us, she was able to give some guidance to her son during a difficult time in his life because of the forethought that she put into it.
Shout out to Princess Diana for still taking care of her baby from beyond the grave #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/4yEqNX97md
— j 😊 (@taintedkitkat) March 8, 2021
Prince Harry knew all too well about what the media did to his mother and how they relentlessly hounded her. He knew that it also had to do with her death and the last thing he wanted was for something similar to happen to his wife.
She took care of the "spare" because she knew they only cared about the heir.
Diana is a better parent to Harry from the grave than Prince Charles is alive and well.https://t.co/1IQA9lBnLR pic.twitter.com/kn8QY42TfV
— Scary Mommy (@ScaryMommy) March 9, 2021
As a result, he decided to make a change. They knew that their lives were changing when they got married and they didn’t want to fall into the same trap. Harry just didn’t want history to repeat itself.
Diana believed many in the royal household viewed her "as a threat of some kind." https://t.co/i55xMjepD3
— TooFab (@TooFab) March 9, 2021
Princess Diana spoke in a BBC interview about her mental health. She said: “Maybe I was the first person ever to be in this family who ever had a depression or was ever openly tearful. And obviously that was daunting because if you’ve never seen it before, how do you support it?”
Approximately 25 years after those statements were made, her daughter-in-law was speaking to Oprah about her own mental health. She said that during her pregnancy at one point she even had thoughts of suicide.
Princess Diana gave her interview in 1995 and talked about being hounded by the media. She said: “The most daunting aspect was the media attention. With the media attention came a lot of jealousy. A great deal of complications arose because of that.”
Markle said something very similar about how her life was affected. She said this to Oprah, “I would sit up at night and I was just like, ‘I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out.’ And I realized that it was all happening just because I was breathing.”
Now that they have left their royal lives, for the most part, Prince Harry had the following to say.
“I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must’ve been like for [my mother] going through this process by herself all those years ago.”