Prince Harry Says He Moved to the States to Break His Family's Cycle of "Genetic Pain and Suffering"

Prince Harry revealed more about his decision to step back from royal life.

During an interview for Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, the Duke of Sussex shared that one of the major reasons he decided to relocate to the United States was to break the cycle of "genetic pain and suffering" within his family. The duke said that he believed his father, Prince Charles, inadvertently raised him the way he was raised as a young royal, but that he would not do the same with his own children.

"He's treated me the way that he was treated," Harry said. "There's a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway. We as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say, 'You know what? That happened to me. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to you.'"

Harry continued, detailing how as he grew older he started to see the similarities between his life and that of his father.

"I never saw it. I never knew about it. And then suddenly I started to piece it all together and go, 'Okay, so this is where he went to school. This is what happened. I know this bit about his life. I also know that's connected to his parents. So that means that he's treated me the way that he was treated, which means how can I change that for my own kids?'" Harry said. "And, well, here I am. I've now moved my whole family to the U.S. but that wasn't the plan. But sometimes you've got to make decisions and put your family first and put your mental health first."

The duke also credited his wife, Duchess Meghan, for encouraging him to start attending therapy to begin deconstructing the trauma and frustration that had long been affecting him.

"Once I started doing therapy," Harry said, "it was like the bubble was burst. I plucked my head out of the sand and gave it a good shake off and I was like, 'You're in this position of privilege, stop complaining and stop thinking you want something different—make this different, because you can't get out. How are you going to do these things differently? How are you going to make your mum proud and use this platform to really affect change?'"

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