The diagnosis came during Harry's first appearance since releasing his tell-all memoir, 'Spare,' earlier this year.
Prince Harry joined Dr. Gabor Maté for an hour-long session that was streamed live, where the Duke of Sussex was diagnosed with ADD -- attention deficit disorder. During the chat, Maté announced that having read Harry’s memoir Spare, he had come up with "several diagnoses" for the prince.
"Whether you like it or not, I have diagnosed you with ADD. You can agree or disagree," the Canadian therapist proclaimed. "I don’t see it as a disease. I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress."
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a mental health disorder that includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior.
"OK -- should I accept that, or should I look into it?" Prince Harry responded to which Maté replied, "You can do what you want with it."
Elsewhere in the interview, Harry opened up about some of those stresses that likely contributed to Maté's diagnosis, including losing his mother, Princess Diana, at the age of 12.
"One of the things I was most scared about was losing the feeling that I had of my mom," he said. "I thought that if I went to therapy, that it would cure me and that I would lose whatever I had left, whatever I had managed to hold on to of my mother. And it turns out that wasn't the case. I didn't lose that. It was the opposite. I turned what I thought was supposed to be sadness -- to try to prove to her that I missed her -- into realizing that, actually, she really just wanted me to be happy. And that was a huge weight off my chest."
Harry, who wrote in his book about how his father did not hug him after informing him of his mother's death, said that when it comes to showing his two children affection, it's something he'll do with abundance.
"Now, as a father to my kids of my own, making sure that I smother them with love and affection," Harry shared. "Not smother them to the point where they're trying to get away. But in the sense that I, as a father, feel a huge responsibility to ensure that I don't pass on any traumas or negative experiences that I've had as a kid or as a man growing up."
Being vulnerable, he said, is key to being a good father and husband to wife, Meghan Markle.
"I've managed to find a vulnerability, strength in vulnerability, and I believe that exists for all of us," he added. "And that is contrary to what we are led to believe. But it's scary. But I want to be the best and I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be the best husband. I also want to be the best dad. And the best dad that I know that I can mean being vulnerable, while also being strong. And those are the two things for me that I think are completely aligned. Being able to talk about our sensitivities or issues, our emotions as men is needed more now than it's ever been needed. So, I will conduct that is how I'm going to spend the rest of my life and I hope that other men will join me on that journey."
The interview marked Harry's first appearance since releasing his scathing tell-all earlier this year, in which he alleged King Charles used to make jokes about not being Harry's real father and that he drove through the Paris tunnel ("not 120 miles per hour, as the press originally reported") where his mother died in 1997 in a horrific car crash. He also alleged in Spare that his brother, Prince William, physically attacked him in 2019.
For more on the fallout from Harry's memoir, check out the links below.
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