Prince Harry received an apparently ‘clinical diagnosis’ live on air when he sat down for an interview with Dr Gabor Maté.
Maté, the Canadian therapist and author of The Myth of Normal, was chatting with Harry for a live-streamed Zoom event when he 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,” he said.
“I don’t see it as a disease. I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress.”
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD) is a condition which manifests as a difficultly in paying attention and impulsive behaviours.
Prince Harry answered, “OK – should I accept that or should I look into it?”
Maté replied, “You can do what you want with it.”
The fireside chat, filmed at Harry’s Montecito home, was streamed to the US, Canada and the UK, where viewers could pay $60 to watch, tickets including a copy of his recently published memoir. The event comes after a round of publicity for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including their recent Netflix documentary series, in which they expressed their displeasure with many aspects of royal life in the UK.
Harry’s chat with Dr Maté had been billed as an “intimate conversation as (the pair) discuss living with loss and the importance of personal healing.”
Unlike recent similar events, Harry kept his counsel, not mentioning his father or brother or their wives. However, he did add that he had always felt different from other members of the royal family, a feeling he said his late mother, Princess Diana, had shared.
Harry told his interviewer:
“I certainly have felt throughout my life, from my younger years, that I always felt slightly different to the rest of my family. I felt strange being in this container. And I know that my mum felt the same.”
