EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry in 'Bad Dad' Therapy — Over Fear of Becoming Deadbeat Father and Divorcee Like King Charles
Prince Harry has been estranged from his family for years.
June 19 2025, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
Petrified Prince Harry is seeing a therapist to avoid becoming a "deadbeat dad" like Prince Charles, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The royal still resents Charles' treatment of his mum Princess Diana – who confessed she was left feeling "closed off" by her former husband's cruelty seconds after she delivered Harry.
Painful Past
Harry hates how his father King Charles treated his late mother Princess Diana.
She said the first words out of her then-husband's mouth when Harry was born were a hint the ginger-haired boy may have been the result of Diana's affair with red-headed cavalry officer James Hewitt.
Diana said Charles sneered when he laid eyes on Harry: "Oh God, it's a boy! And he's even got red hair."
She added: "Something inside me closed off."
The Princess also claimed that she hid Harry's gender from Charles because she knew how much he wanted a little girl.
She went on to self-harm over Charles' snide comments about her weight.
A source said about Harry – who has kids Archie, 6, and Lilibet, 4, with his 43-year-old wife Meghan Markle: "Harry's big into 'wellness' and mental health now thanks to Meghan’s influence and his involvement in mental health charities.
"He's being supported by Meghan in his decision to see a counselor as he's racked with fear he will fall into the classic trap of repeating mistakes from the past.
"It's well-known how scarred he is by tales of Charles' cruelty to his beloved mother and he sees therapy as a way of becoming the best dad possible to his son Archie and little girl.
"His therapy is classic blame-rthe-parents stuff. It's not that he's a bad dad – he just wants to do everything he can not to so what Charles did."
They added Harry is also still secretly "horrified" over Charles' handling of Diana’s death.
Battling Dad
The royal exile is determined not to be as emotionless as his dad.
The source said: "Harry is still heartbroken he and William were made to walk behind Diana's coffin as kids, and by Charles' buttoned-up emotionless state in the wake of her death left him and his brother scarred for life.
"It’s not the kind of behavior he ever wants his kids to experience."
Harry, 40, is also intent on ensuring he is "the best dad he can be" so Meghan does not fall victim to the baby blues that tormented his mum – who was killed aged 36 in a 1997 car smash in Paris with her lover Dodi Fayed.
Diana said her depression hit when she had her first son William, 42, less than a year after joining 'The Firm' – just like Meghan.
She shocked the world when she told six years before her death of being afflicted with depression.
Diana told journalist Martin Bashir in her famous 1995 BBC1 Panorama interview with the broadcaster she was hit with post-partum depression after her first son William was born.
She said: "I was unwell with post-natal depression, which no one ever discusses, post-natal depression, you have to read about it afterwards, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time.
"You'd wake up in the morning feeling you didn't want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself.
"In the space of a year my whole life had changed, turned upside down, and it had its wonderful moments, but it also had challenging moments. And I could see where the rough edges needed to be smoothed."
Self-Harm Nightmare
Diana was do distressed by her time in the royal family she cut her arms and legs.
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But Diana said she got zero help from the royals beyond getting counseling, adding it drove her to cut herself.
She added: "It gave everybody a wonderful new label – 'Diana's unstable and Diana's mentally unbalanced.'
"And unfortunately that seems to have stuck on and off over the years.
"You have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help, but it's the wrong help you're asking for. People see it as crying wolf or attention seeking, and they think because you’re in the media all the time you’ve got enough attention, inverted commas.
"But I was actually crying out because I wanted to get better in order to go forward and continue my duty and my role as wife, mother, Princess of Wales.
"I did inflict (pain) upon myself. I didn't like myself, I was ashamed because I couldn't cope with the pressures.
"I just hurt my arms and my legs; and I work in environments now where I see women doing similar things and I'm able to understand completely where they're coming from."
Di also suffered depression while married to Charles.
Diana also suffered depression before William was born and threw herself down the stairs four months into her pregnancy.
She blamed her despair over her torturous marriage to the then-Prince Charles for the self-abortion attempt.
The incident was detailed in journalist Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story.
It quoted Diana saying: "When I was four months pregnant with William I threw myself downstairs, trying to get my husband's attention, for him to listen to me.
"I had told Charles I felt so desperate and I was crying my eyes out. He said I was crying wolf.
"'I'm not going to listen,' he said. 'You're always doing this to me. I'm going riding now.'"
