Prince Harry appears in promo for new 'mental fitness' campaign – just hours before new Oprah show

Prince Harry has appeared in a new mental health campaign video promoting ‘mental fitness’, as the Royal Family brace for more ‘truth bombs’ in his follow up discussion with Oprah Winfrey – due to air in just hours.  

Supporting the organisation Peak State Prince Harry told viewers: ‘Peak State is striving to build a global community that understands the importance of mental fitness and feels empowered to attain it.’ 

In the video, which features a number of ‘everyday’ people going about their lives, the prince is heard in a voiceover: ‘Peak State aims to help people take a proactive approach to the good management of good mental health.’ 

Peak State is a new social enterprise set up by two Invictus Games medallists, David Wiseman and Nathan Jones, both of whom have recovered from serious injuries sustained in service with the British military. 

It is understood that Prince Harry previously worked with the founders at HeadFIT, a campaign supporting the mental health and wellbeing of serving personnel, their families and veterans – developed in partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence.

The new organisation aims to encourage people ‘to adopt mental fitness tools and techniques that were formerly considered purely for professional athletes and top executives’.     

Peak State co-founder David Wiseman, a former infantry officer in the Yorkshire Regiment, tweeted following the video’s release: ‘Soon, everyone will consider their mental fitness in the same way as physical fitness – something to work on regularly in order to unlock potential & maximise performance, as opposed to only being considered when something isn’t quite right.’   

Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey will reunite again in a programme airing early this Friday morning in the UK, as they revisit their Apple TV+ documentary about mental health with a virtual follow-up discussion one week later.

The Duke of Sussex will speak to Oprah and other celebrities involved in the five-part series including actress Glenn Close as they reveal more about their stories in ‘The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward’.   

It comes after Apple said the show, which began streaming last Friday, had brought a 25 per cent rise in new viewers to the platform and a more than 40 per cent increase in average weekend viewership in the UK last week.

This Friday’s follow-up, described by Apple as a ‘virtual town hall conversation’, will reunite health experts, celebrities and others who spoke about their struggles with depression, schizophrenia and anxiety in the series.

In a statement on the Archewell website, Harry and Meghan said the new programme would see the Duke and others ‘go deeper into their own stories’ and begin to answer the question: ‘Where do we go from here?’ 

The initial documentary, called ‘The Me You Can’t See’, saw Harry speak at length about the trauma of his mother Princess Diana’s death, his concern for wife Meghan Markle and the reaction by other Royal Family members. 

But royal experts criticised Harry over the programme, with Angela Levin saying ‘he should back away from being a woke lecturing celebrity’ and Camilla Tominey slamming his ‘smug, self-pitying and at times, spiteful rhetoric’. 

It came after Harry accused the Royal Family of racism during an interview with Oprah in March and suggested the Queen and Prince Philip, who died aged 99 last month, had failed as parents in a podcast chat earlier this month.

The Duke’s future relationship with his father Prince Charles, brother Prince William and the rest of the Windsors has been brought into question following Harry’s repeated criticism of them after stepping down as a senior royal. 

Now, Buckingham Palace will no doubt be braced for further allegations fired from California across the Atlantic by Harry, who is still due to visit Britain in five weeks’ time for the unveiling of a statue to Diana on July 1. The planned trip comes despite the Duke saying in last week’s Apple documentary that London is a ‘trigger’ for his anxiety.

Apple said last week’s show was also widely watched in Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil and other countries. It is not yet clear whether Harry will speak more about his own mental health struggles in this Friday’s programme.

The new documentary – which Apple told MailOnline would be released in the UK ‘very early in the morning’ – is produced by Oprah’s company Harpo Productions, with Oprah and Harry among the executive producers alongside Terry Wood and Tara Montgomery.  

 ‘The Me You Can’t See’ project marked Harry’s first foray into television production since he and Meghan, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, quit their royal duties and moved to California last year.

Apple TV+ said the virtual episode this Friday would feature some of those who were interviewed offering further insight into their stories and guidance from experts.

Other notable participants in the documentary included singer Lady Gaga, NBA basketball players DeMar DeRozan and Langston Galloway, boxer Virginia ‘Ginny’ Fuchs, and celebrity chef Rashad Armstead.

In a statement on Harry and Meghan’s Archewell website today, the couple said: ‘When we hear others’ stories, it empowers us to share our own. And ‘The Me You Can’t See’, Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey’s new critically acclaimed, multipart docuseries, is doing just that: inspiring people worldwide to share their stories and talk openly about issues of mental health and emotional well-being.

‘Today, co-creators and executive producers Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey, along with Apple TV+, have announced that they will be hosting a town hall, The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward, to continue that global conversation this Friday, May 28.  

‘In ‘The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward’, Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey reunite with participants and experts from the series for a thought-provoking, wide-ranging discussion to build on their initial conversations around mental health and well-being. The subjects go deeper into their own stories from the series, the experts share their guidance, and together they begin to answer the critical question: Where do we go from here?

‘The insightful and expansive town hall features members of The Me You Can’t See Advisory Board, as well as series participants including Glenn Close; Zak Williams, a mental health advocate and speaker; and Ambar Martinez, an author and OnTrack NY peer counselor.’

News of this Friday’s programme was released by Reuters, Associated Press and the Deadline news website simultaneously at exactly 1.16pm today.

About half an hour later at 1.49pm, the Sussexes’s trusted media partner Omid Scobie, who is the royal editor at Harper’s Bazaar, tweeted: ‘Millions have already streamed #TheMeYouCantSee, and now @AppleTV confirm that @Oprah and Prince Harry are following up the series with a ‘town hall-style conversation’ special. 

‘A Path Forward will be available from May 28 and offers further insight from guests and their stories.’

An Apple spokesman said: ‘Apple TV+ announced today ‘The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward,’ a town hall conversation hosted by co-creators and executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry, with subjects and experts from the critically acclaimed, multi-part documentary series exploring mental health and emotional well-being, premiering Friday, May 28 for free on Apple TV+.

‘Following the global debut of the groundbreaking documentary series, ‘The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward,’ Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry reunite with advisors and participants for a thought-provoking, wide-ranging conversation about mental health and emotional well-being, and where we go from here. 

‘As the subjects offer further insight into their stories, experts share their guidance for continuing the global conversation.’

During the documentary, Harry once again lambasted the parenting skills of the Prince of Wales, criticising his father for expecting his sons to endure the pressures of royal life, just as Charles has done, instead of protecting them.

Harry criticised his family, accusing them of ‘total neglect’ when his wife Meghan was feeling suicidal amid harassment on social media.  

And he laid bare his battles with panic attacks and severe anxiety, saying ‘so 28 to probably 32 was a nightmare time in my life’.

Harry also claimed his late mother was hounded in part because she was dating half-Egyptian Dodi Fayed.

Asked by Oprah if he had any regrets, Harry also said he wished that he had taken a stronger stance on ‘the racism’ aimed at Meghan early in their relationship.

‘By this point, both of us were in shock,’ he said. ‘My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white.

‘And now look at what’s happened. And it all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry.’

Asked whether he had regrets, he replied: ‘My biggest regret is not making more of a stance. Calling out racism when I did. History was repeating itself.’

Harry claimed that it was only him and their unborn child that kept Meghan going, after she told him about her suicidal thoughts and the practicalities of how she was going to end her life. 

He said: ‘The thing that stopped her from seeing it through was how unfair it would be on me after everything that had happened to my mum and to now be put in a position of losing another woman in my life, with a baby inside of her, our baby.’ 

He said he was ‘somewhat ashamed’ of the way he dealt with it, suggesting that rather than prioritising their official duties they should have pulled out. But at the time, Harry said, that was not an option, because of ‘the system’. 

Harry said that after marrying Meghan his attempts to get help from his family, following online trolling which was pushing her to the brink, were ignored.

He said: ‘Every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, to stop just got met with total silence or total neglect.’

Harry added: ‘We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job.’

He said he did not go to his family when Meghan felt suicidal because he was ashamed the situation had got ‘that bad’ and also suspected the royals would not have been able to help.

The duke said: ‘That was one of the biggest reasons to leave, feeling trapped and feeling controlled through fear, both by the media and by the system itself which never encouraged the talking about this kind of trauma. Certainly now I will never be bullied into silence.’

Harry was also shown taking part in an eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy session with a trained professional.

He said: ‘Therapy has equipped me to be able to take on anything – that’s why I’m here now, that’s why my wife is here now.’

His comments will no doubt have increased the much publicised tensions within the royal family following Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah in March. 

In that programme the Sussexes first accused the royal family of not supporting them, claimed royal aides declined to help Meghan when she was troubled with suicidal thoughts and said a relative had made a racist comment about their son’s skin colour. 

Royal biographer Angela Levin, the author of 2018 book ‘Harry: Conversations with the Prince’, tweeted on Monday: ‘How dreadful if Harry constantly thinks that he will lose Meghan like he did Diana and blames racism. 

‘Plus can’t get rid of M’s threat to commit suicide. His life sounds too much for him and he should back away from being a woke lecturing celebrity.’

Hours before the new show aired, Harry joined his brother the Duke of Cambridge in criticising the BBC following an inquiry which found the broadcaster covered up ‘deceitful behaviour’ used by journalist Martin Bashir to secure his headline-making 1995 interview with their mother.

The series comes after Harry appeared to suggest his father and grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, had all failed as parents during a podcast interview broadcast earlier in May. 

‘The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward’ will begin streaming on Apple TV+ this Friday worldwide