Prince Harry discusses settling down in 2013

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Prince Harry acknowledged the privileged position being born into the Royal Family has given him during the latest episode of the podcast Armchair Expert. While saying privilege does give you “blinkers”, however, he said his ones “were never particularly on straight”.

The Duke of Sussex discussed with hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman compassionate acts and how helping others have made him feel better, even when he was struggling.

Speaking about one of his most successful projects, the Invictus Games Foundation, Harry said: “When I created the Invictus Games for instance, for wounded servicemen and women from, what now, 20 different countries, when I started it I was ‘I am going to create this platform because I know that sport rehabilitates people, both physically and emotionally and mentally’.

“But once I started doing it, once I started seeing the progress and impact, suddenly I was like ‘wow, healing other people heals me’.

“And I think that’s when the compassion piece comes in for all of us, which is once you have suffered, you don’t want anybody else to suffer.” 

Mr Shepard said: “And it’s an esteemable act, it’s something you can be proud of.”

After speaking about how helping others can be a selfish, but positive, act, as it makes people feel better, Prince Harry added: “I think some people think that you can only really have that element of compassion for friends or for people that you see on a day-to-day basis, but in reality service is universal.

“Wherever you go, you are going to find something you can connect with somebody else.”

Agreeing, Mr Shepard said: “You were born in a palace, you are a prince – something could have been of service to you, it doesn’t have to be someone who’s got a cup in their hand asking for change. 

“Everyone needs a hand, everyone needs an ear.”

Harry then recalled what Ms Padman had told him earlier in the podcast.

The co-host said Harry met, as a working royal, people across the Commonwealth who were in a “much worse situation” than him in some respects but who also “in some ways they had more freedom than you did”.

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Harry then continued: “I feel way more connection to those free people you were talking about, emotionally free people and I guess systemic free people, I feel way more connection to people I met and worked with in parts of Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and wherever it is.

“And I am fortunate like that, because the privilege does give you blinkers, mine were never particularly on straight, I have always felt different.”

During this podcast, Prince Harry also revealed he did not want to be a working royal in his 20s.

He explained: “In my early 20s, it was the case of ‘I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be doing this, look what it did to my mum.

“‘How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and a family when I know it’s going to happen again.

“‘Because I know, I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model, I know how this operation runs and how it works, and I don’t want to be part of this’.”

However, he added, therapy helped him to make the best out of his position and use his privilege to help others.

On Armchair Expert, Harry also discussed media scrutiny and the “madness” he experienced with drones and paparazzi placed outside of the home he was staying at in Los Angeles in the spring of 2020 before moving into his home in Santa Barbara. 

He also shared how, at the beginning of his relationship with Meghan, they once met at a London supermarket.

He said: “The first time Meghan and I met up for her to come and stay with me, we met up in a supermarket in London, pretending we didn’t know each other, texting each other from the other side of the aisles.

“There’s people looking at me, giving me all these weird looks, and coming up to me and saying ‘hi’.

“I texted her saying ‘is this the right one’, and she said ‘no you want parchment paper’, and I’m like ‘where’s the parchment paper?!’

“I had a baseball cap on, looking down at the floor, trying to stay incognito. It’s amazing how much chewing gum you see, it’s a mess!”   

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