Prince Harry’s latest interview to promote his bombshell memoir Spare could prove to be the most damaging yet for his father, King Charles – as it will see the Duke sitting down with a ‘childhood trauma expert’ who believes that everything wrong in people’s lives is rooted in their negative experiences as a child.
The royal, 38, is set to speak with Hungarian-Canadian doctor Gabor Maté on Saturday to promote his new memoir, Spare, and discuss ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing.’
Having already taken several swipes at his family in the pages of his book, this new interview will provide Harry with an opportunity to delve even deeper into his childhood – and potentially lay bare any ‘traumatic’ experiences that he believes have led to his struggles as an adult.
Gabor, 79, is a physician and author with more than two decades of experience working with people suffering from addiction and mental illness – and he fiercely believes that all of the problems we face as adults stem from trauma we endured as children.
He claims that the ‘greatest damage done by neglect, trauma, or emotional loss is not the immediate pain they inflict’ in the immediate aftermath, but rather the ‘long-term’ damage that they have on a person as they grow out of childhood.
Prince Harry (left) will have an ‘intimate’ conversation with ‘childhood trauma expert’ Gabor Maté (right) – who believes ‘everything wrong’ in our lives stems from trauma we faced as kids
The royal, 38, is set to sit down with the Hungarian-Canadian doctor on Saturday to promote his new memoir, Spare, and discuss ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing’
Gabor (seen with his wife) fiercely believes that all of the problems we face as adults is rooted from issues that arose when we were kids
In his tell-all book, which came out in January, Harry launched numerous attacks against his family and shared a series of intimate secrets about what it was really like to grow up as a royal
Harry himself has been open about the traumas that he suffered as a child, opening up about the difficulties he says he faced as the ‘spare’ to his older brother the ‘heir’, as well as the struggles he went through after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
The Duke has repeatedly taken aim at his family in multiple interviews, the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary and, most recently, his explosive memoir Spare and its accompanying publicity tour.
The Duke of Sussex spoke heavily about the negative impact that losing his mother, Princess Diana, at a young age had on him and how hard it was for him to be raised in the public eye. He is seen at his mothers funeral
In his tell-all book, which came out in January, Harry launched numerous attacks against his family and shared a series of intimate secrets about what it was really like to grow up as a royal.
The Duke of Sussex spoke heavily about the negative impact that losing his mother, Princess Diana, at a young age had on him and how hard it was for him to be raised in the public eye – while being treated like the ‘spare’ compared to his older brother, Prince William, who is the heir to the throne.
Much of Gabor’s work has stemmed from one overall notion that ‘everything that is “wrong” with you began as a survival mechanism in childhood,’ as he once put it – so it will certainly be interesting to see what he and Harry discuss.
‘All our dysfunctions, our relationship problems, the pain that we carry, the resentment we harbor, the anger that we generate at our partners – it originates in early childhood trauma,’ Gabor said in a previous interview.
According to the doctor, children don’t have to be subjected to ‘violence, addiction, abuse, or mental illness’ for their ‘biological development’ to be negatively impacted.
In fact, he believes that we are often subjected to ‘terrible stress’ even as infants. He told The Scotsman in 2019, ‘These studies don’t include everything. They don’t include the terrible stresses infants undergo when their parents are suffering.
‘I don’t recall being an infant, but it’s stamped in my brain, in my physiology and psychology.
‘What happens to you in the first three or four years of life has the most profound influence on how you’re going to be for the rest of your life.’
While speaking to AcesConnection.com, Gabor added that parents often transfer the tension and pressure they feel from outside influences – such as work, their relationship, and social media – to their children without even realizing.
He also said he was treated like the ‘spare’ compared to his older brother, Prince William, who is the heir to the throne
Much of Gabor’s work has stemmed from one overall notion that ‘everything that is “wrong” with you began as a survival mechanism in childhood,’ as he once said
He explained that kids often get ‘separated from nurturing adults’ and don’t have time to ‘fully attach’ thanks to the introduction of ‘technology’ and busy ‘schedules.’
The doctor also stressed the importance of parents ‘responding to a child in a way that the child feels seen, heard, understood, accepted, celebrated, received.’
‘Children are a great incentive and impetus for parents to learn about themselves, about each other and about life itself. Unfortunately, much of the learning may occur at their expense,’ he said in a separate interview.
‘Whatever the hopes, wishes or intentions of the parent, the child does not experience the parent directly: the child experiences the parenting.
‘When it comes to relationships between parents and children, it’s not just the thought that counts, it’s the action that communicates the thought.
‘When we are older and have the capacity to view our parents’ behavior in context, we might find it easier to forgive and understand their actions.
‘However, even that perspective-granted view of events is not enough to erase the layers of belief about ourselves and the world around us that parenting implanted in the first place.
‘This doesn’t mean that we need to parent in fear of ruining the children, but to parent mindfully, knowing that we are the single greatest influence that they will experience in their lives.’
Gabor and Harry’s conversation will be livestreamed, and you can buy a ticket to watch it for $33. A live question and answer session with viewers will follow their talk.
In his bombshell autobiography, Harry recalled often feeling like ‘the shadow, the support, the Plan B’ as a kid.
‘I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy. I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part,’ he wrote.
‘A kidney, perhaps. Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow. This was all made explicitly clear to be from the start of life’s journey and regularly reinforced thereafter.’
He said his mother once told him that the day he was born, King Charles told her, ‘Wonderful, now you’ve given me an Heir and a Spare – my work is done.’
Gabor’s own childhood will filled with loss – he was born in Budapest in 1944, but his maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was five months old.
He was then separated from his mother as a baby to save his life, while his father was subjected to forced labor by the Nazis.
The doctor once described how he was unable to look at his mother when they were finally reunited due to feelings of ‘abandonment, rage and despair’ – something he said still heavily impacts him now.
According to the doctor, children don’t have to be subjected to ‘violence, addiction, abuse, or mental illness’ for their ‘biological development’ to be negatively impacted
In his bombshell autobiography, Harry recalled often feeling like ‘the shadow, the support, the Plan B’ as a kid
Gabor has faced controversy in the past for comparing Hamas to the Jewish heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, branding Israel’s government as terrorists, and defending Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians.
The author is also an outspoken supporter of psychedelic drugs, and has used the Amazonian plant ayahuasca to treat patients suffering from mental illness – which lead to Canadian officials threatening to arrest him if he didn’t stop using the drug to treat his patients in 2011.
According to Healthline, ayahuasca – which is usually brewed into a tea – is made from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub along with the stalks of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, both of which, have hallucinogenic properties.
Harry has admitted to using the drug to help cope with the loss of his mother, who died in a car accident in 1997, when he was 12.
He told 60 Minutes host Anderson Cooper that he only cried over his mom’s death once – when her coffin was put in the ground – and that he was plagued with guilt over feeling like he was not being emotional enough over her passing for years.
But the former royal said using psychedelics when he got older ultimately ‘cleared away the idea’ that he needed be sad to prove he ‘missed’ his mom.
‘I would never recommend people to do this recreationally,’ he said. ‘But doing it with the right people if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma, then these things have a way of working as a medicine.
He said his mother once told him that the day he was born, King Charles told her, ‘Wonderful, now you’ve given me an Heir and a Spare – my work is done’
‘For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield, the misery of loss. They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that … I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy.’
The new interview comes days after news hit the web that King Charles had decided to evict Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, 41, from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor just 24 hours after the release of Spare. Charles is seen with Camilla in November 2022
In his memoir, Spare, Harry spoke about it further, writing that the psychedelics – which are illegal in the US, UK, and Canada – allowed him to see ‘the truth’ and discover ‘another reality,’ and that even after they wore off, he saw a world that was ‘twice as beautiful.’
The new interview comes days after news hit the web that King Charles had decided to evict Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, 41, from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor just 24 hours after the release of Spare.
Sources said he he believed Harry had ‘crossed a line’ following his shocking claims in the book, particularly, that Camilla was responsible for leaking stories to the media.
‘It was the last straw. Harry was well aware how Camilla would be a red line for his father and he crossed with flagrant disregard anyway,’ an insider told the Mirror.
‘The King felt without a doubt it crossed a line – it was the ultimate act of disrespect.’
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