Prince Harry On the Years of 'Buried Emotion' After His Mom's Death: 'I Just Didn't Want to Think About It'

Prince Harry has opened up about experiencing years of “buried emotion” following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

In a new documentary, Prince Harry in Africa, the 32-year-old royal confessed that he spent a huge chunk of his young adulthood not dealing with the loss of his mom, who died in a Paris car accident at the age of 36.

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“I’d never really dealt with what had actually happened, so there was a lot of buried emotion and, for a huge part of my life, I just didn’t even want to think about it,” he shared.

The ITV production follows the royal’s work with Sentebale, a charity he co-founded in his mother’s honor, to assist children suffering from HIV and AIDS.

While Harry says the organization has allowed him to continue the “unfinished work my mother never completed,” it has also helped him work through his grief.

“I now view life differently from what it used to be,” he said in the doc. “I used to bury my head in the sand, and let everything around you tear you to pieces. I was fighting the system, going, ‘I don’t want to be this person.'”

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“My mother died when I was very, very young and I don’t want to be in the position,” he continued. “Now I’m so energized, fired up, to be lucky enough to be in a position to make a difference.”

It’s not just his work that has the prince fired up these days. The philanthropist has also found love with Suits star Meghan Markle.

See more on their romance in the video below.

Meghan Markle Leaves London After Romantic Week With Prince Harry

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