Prince Harry 'in total chaos' over mother Diana's death

Prince Harry has revealed he sought counselling after spending nearly 20 years "not thinking" about the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said it was not until his late 20s that he processed the grief - after two years of "total chaos" and coming close to a "complete breakdown".

But he was in a "good place" because of the "process I have been through".

Harry, 32, also said boxing had "saved" him by helping him let out aggression.

The Telegraph says Prince Harry had decided to talk about his past in the hope it would encourage people to break the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Along with his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, he is promoting the Heads Together mental health campaign, the London Marathon's charity of the year.

Speaking to



the paper's Bryony Gordon, Prince Harry said: "I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well."

He added: "I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle."

'Head in the sand'

The Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Prince Harry said: "My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?"

"(I thought) it's only going to make you sad, it's not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like 'right, don't ever let your emotions be part of anything.'"