Prince Harry says he left UK because the British press was ‘destroying my mental health’

Name: Prince Harry and Meghan stepping back hits Chinese social media
Uploaded: 2021-02-26T15:05:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 18 s
Description: Prince Harry and Meghan stepping back hits Chinese social media

‘I did what any husband and what any father would do is like, “I need to get my family out of here,”’ the 36-year-old told US TV host James Corden

Harry also revealed his one-year-old son Archie’s first word was ‘crocodile’

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Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan in London. File photo: AP

Reuters

Published: 11:05pm, 26 Feb 2021Updated: 1:22am, 27 Feb 2021

Britain’s Prince Harry has said he stepped back from his royal duties because the “toxic” British press had been destroying his mental health, adding he had not walked away from public service.

Last week, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and his American wife Meghan had made a final split with the royal family, and would not be returning as working members and would lose their patronages.

Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, sent shock waves through the monarchy in January 2020 when they announced their intention to step back from royal duties and embark on a new life across the Atlantic.

“It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down, there was a really difficult environment as I think a lot of people saw,” Harry said in an interview with James Corden, host of the Late Late Show in the US.

“We all know what the British press could be like, and it was destroying my mental health, I was like, ‘This is toxic.’ So I did what any husband and what any father would do is like, ‘I need to get my family out of here.’”

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Prince Harry and Meghan stepping back hits Chinese social media

Before they moved to California, the couple had complained about the British tabloids’ treatment of Meghan, whose father is white and mother is African-American, some of which they said amounted to bullying or racism.