Prince Harry opens up on the ‘cycle of pain and suffering’ father Prince Charles 'passed on' to him while growing up

Prince Harry has revealed his plans to “break the cycle” of “pain and suffering” he experienced growing up as a member of the Royal Family. 

• Prince Harry has spoken out about his desire to “break the cycle” of "suffering" when it comes to parenting his own children. 
• The Duke of Sussex declared that he’s experienced “pain” because of what his father Prince Charles went through himself. 
• This royal news (opens in new tab) comes as Duchess Camilla did something so special for the Queen as she faced a difficult day without Prince Philip (opens in new tab). 

Prince Harry has opened up (opens in new tab) in a deeply personal interview about the “pain and suffering” he experienced growing up. The Duke of Sussex, who is sixth in the royal line of succession (opens in new tab), took the decision along with his wife Meghan Markle to step back (opens in new tab) as senior members of the Royal Family last year.

They have since settled in the US with son Archie (opens in new tab) and confirmed they are never coming back (opens in new tab) as working royals. Now living away from the royal spotlight, Harry and Meghan are expecting their second child (opens in new tab)  and have revealed they will be welcoming a little girl. (opens in new tab)

Ahead of her arrival, Harry has now discussed his approach to parenting, vowing to raise his own children differently from the way he, Prince William and their parents were brought up. 

Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard, the Duke of Sussex declared that he didn’t want to “point the finger”, but expressed his belief that Charles “treated [him] the way he was treated”. 

Opening up on his childhood, Harry said: “There is no blame. I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.

“It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway so 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.’”

The Duke of Sussex went on to reveal he became more aware of certain aspects of Prince Charles’ approach to parenting, claiming it was inspired by the Prince of Wales’ own upbringing. 

“Suddenly I started to piece it together and go ‘OK, so this is where he went to school, this is what happened, I know this about his life, I also know that is connected to his parents so that means he’s treated me the way he was treated, so how can I change that for my own kids?’” Harry reflected. 

“And well here I am, I moved my whole family to the US, that wasn’t the plan but sometimes you’ve got to make decisions and put your family first and put your mental health first.”

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan moved to their new LA home (opens in new tab) in 2020. After the couple’s recent bombshell Oprah interview aired, reports of tension between them and the royals have circulated. 

Though Harry reunited with Prince Charles and Prince William at Prince Philip’s funeral (opens in new tab) last month, it's not yet known when he will next see his father in person after these recent revelations.