Prince Harry has taken a subtle swipe at the Royal Family during a bonus episode of his Apple+ TV series, The Me You Can’t See, which was released on Thursday night.
In the 90-minute special, Harry spoke about the ‘shame’ families feel when discussing mental health issues, before he bonded with Robin Williams’ son, Zak, who made a guest appearance on the program.
‘Your father was a real hero of mine,’ Harry cooed after Zak joined the show via video link. ‘He brought so much joy and entertainment to so many people’.
The Royal remarked that he and Zak were both unable to properly grieve the deaths of their famous parents amid so much publicity.
Robin Williams committed suicide in 2014, prompting an international outpouring of grief similar in scale to the untimely death of Princess Diana back in 1997.
Speaking candidly about his father’s death, Zak explained that he felt a disconnect between his private emotions and the collective public mourning that occurred.
‘From my end I didn’t get a chance to focus on the private grieving process until a year and a half after my dad passed away,’ he stated.
Harry concurred, saying: ‘We have a lot of shared experience when you see so many people around the world grieving for someone they feel they knew better than you did because you’re unable to grieve yourself.’
Prince Harry has bonded with Robin Williams’ son Zak during a bonus episode of his Apple+ TV series, The Me You Can’t See, which was released on Thursday night. The Royal remarked that it was interesting that he and Zak were both unable to properly grieve the deaths of their famous parents amid so much publicity
Harry and Zak have bonded over the unusual experience of having one of their universally beloved parents die tragically. Harry and Princess Diana are pictured at left in 1995; Zak and Robin Williams are seen at right in 2012
Elsewhere during the bonus episode, Harry spoke with Oprah – with whom he produced the mental health docuseries. The pair reflected on what they had learned during the course of filming the show.
They agreed that the best piece of advice they received was to tell a suicidal person that they are ‘not alone’.
The Prince added that he now feels better equipped with how to respond to someone who tells him they are thinking about ending their own life.
‘So many people are afraid of being on the receiving end of that conversation [from a suicidal person] because they don’t feel like they have the right tools to give the right advice,’ Harry stated.
‘But what you want to say is “You’re there”. Listen, because listening and being part of that conversation is without doubt the best first step that you can take.’
It comes after Harry confessed in an earlier episode that he did not know how to react when wife Meghan Markle told him that she was feeling suicidal.
Prince Harry has spoken candidly about how he dealt with learning Meghan Markle was feeling suicidal during a new episode of his Apple+ TV series
Harry and Meghan are pictured on January 16, 2019 – the night she told him she was suicidal
During that installment, Harry recalled the moment a pregnant Meghan told him that she wanted to kill herself shortly before an engagement at Royal Albert Hall in January 2019.
‘I’m somewhat ashamed of the way that I dealt with it,’ Harry revealed.
‘And of course, because of the system that we were in and the responsibilities and the duties that we had, we had a quick cuddle and then we had to get changed to jump in a convoy with a police escort and drive to the Royal Albert Hall for a charity event. Then step out into a wall of cameras and pretend as though everything’s okay.’
Thursday’s bonus episode of The Me You Can’t See also featured conversations with mental health experts and celebrities about suicide.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hold hands at the Royal Albert Hall in London in January 2019
The bonus episode also featured conversations with mental health experts, who also spoke about suicide
Actress Glenn Close made an appearance, saying it was important to talk openly about mental health issues with family members.
Close admitted that her family failed to talk about mental health and covered up a family history of mental illness.
She stated that she subsequently felt shame for not realizing a family member had been struggling.
Harry chimed in, stating: ‘There’s an element of shame that we feel because we’re like “How could we have not have seen it? How could we not know? How did you not feel comfortable enough to share that with me?”‘
He did not saying whether he was directly referring to his own reaction to Meghan telling him that she no longer wanted to live.
Actress Glenn Close also made an appearance, saying it was important to talk openly about mental health issues and suicidal ideation