Prince Harry says he desperately wants to ‘break the cycle’ of ‘genetic pain and suffering’ caused by his upbringing

PRINCE Harry has blasted dad Charles’s parenting and said he moved to California to “break the cycle” of pain for wife Meghan and their kids.

The Duke, 36, claimed his dad, 72, “suffered” due to his upbringing by the Queen and Philip, then “treated me the way he was treated”.

Harry hailed mum Diana’s “immense impact” but said he didn’t cope with her death until Meghan suggested therapy.

In a sweary podcast chat, he described royal life as a mixture of The Truman Show film and being in a zoo.

The royal also revealed he wanted to quit royal duty when he was in his twenties, saying: “I didn’t want this job.”

He told how he hated his role after the death of his mother Princess Diana and always felt different from the rest of his family.

And he said he moved to the US with Meghan and baby son Archie to escape his “genetic pain”.

The Duke opened up about his mental health struggles in a brutally frank, and profanity-laden, chat with US podcast host Dax Shepard.

He also claimed that he was told “you need help” while he was ­growing up but rejected it, saying: “There is nothing wrong with me.”

Only weeks after telling Oprah Winfrey in a bombshell interview that his dad was “trapped”, Harry again opened up about their father-son relationship.

He said on the “Armchair Expert” podcast: “I verbalise it, which is, ‘Isn’t life about breaking the cycle’?

"There’s no blame, I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody.

“But certainly when it comes to parenting, if I have experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering perhaps my father or my parents suffered, I’m gonna make sure that I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.

“There is a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on ­anyway. As parents we should be doing the most that we can to say, ‘You know what, that happened to me, I’m gonna make sure that’s not going to happen to you’.”

Meghan is expecting a daughter — the couple’s second child — this summer with the family now settling in to their new life in California.

Speaking about the parental differences between him and 72-year-old Charles, Harry said: “It’s really hard to do but for me it comes down to awareness.

“I never saw it, I never knew about it, then suddenly I started to piece it all together and go, ‘OK, so, this is where he went to school, this is what happened’.

"I know this bit about his life, I also know that’s connected to his parents, so that means that he is treating me the way that he was treated.

“Which means, ‘How can I change that for my own kids’? And well, here I am, I have now moved my whole family to the US.

“That wasn’t the plan, do you know what I mean? But sometimes you have got to make decisions and put your family first and your mental health first.”

Harry claimed he “always felt different” from his relatives long before he quit royal duty with Meghan, 39, last year.

He said: “It’s the job, grin and bear and get on with it.” He explained: “Privilege does give you blinkers. Mine were never particularly on straight, I have always felt different.”

He went on: “I was in my early twenties and it was a case of, ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this.’”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Harry revealed...

• Prince Harry claims his life is like the film The Truman Show and he is targeted with "vile and toxic abuse" by trolls
• Harry revealed how he and Meghan Markle first met up in a supermarket - and ‘pretended’ they didn’t know each other to avoid attracting attention
• Harry tries to have "compassion" for trolls, but finds it "really hard when you're on the receiving end"
• The Duke said that life had felt "more free" since his move to LA with Meghan
• Harry doesn't believe in the "old way of thinking" where girls just "want to be a princess"
• Meghan Markle gave Prince Harry words of wisdom about Royal life - telling him "you can create your own life better than any princess"

The claim will come as a surprise to the Royal Family, as royal sources insist Harry did not tell those closest to him that he wanted to leave — until he met Meghan.

Harry continued: “Look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and a family when I know that it’s going to happen again because I’ve seen behind the curtain?

"I’ve seen the business model, I know how this operation runs, how it works. I don’t want to be part of this. Then once I started doing therapy the bubble was burst. I plucked my head out of the sand. I said, ‘You are in this position of privilege.

"Stop complaining, stop thinking as though you want something different. Make this different, because you can’t get out. So how are you going to do this differently? How are you going to make your mum proud? How are you going to use this platform to really effect change’?”

Harry revealed it was former US actress Meghan who quickly identified his need for therapy shortly after they began dating in 2016.

He recalled: “It was a conversation that I had with my now-wife. And she saw it. She saw it straight away. She could tell that I was hurting and that some of the stuff that was out of my control was making me really angry.

"It would make my blood boil. It’s not a ­temper, it’s a fire. I have never screamed, not shouted. For me, the best way of letting out aggression is through boxing.

“For me, prior to meeting Meghan, it was very much a case of, certainly connected to the media, that anger and frustration that this is so unjust. Not just about me but all this stuff.”

The Prince also joked about his “wild” partying days, including when he was pictured naked in Las Vegas in 2012.

He said: “I certainly didn’t have the awareness when I was going wild. Why am I actually doing this? In the moment it’s like, ‘Why not’? I’m in my twenties that’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it?”

The Prince was speaking out to promote his mental health documentary The Me You Can’t See with Oprah Winfrey.

Dax used the F-word frequently throughout the 90-minute interview, which also featured co-host Monica Padman. He told Harry: “You’re in the tiniest in-group of all time. There’s the whole country and then there’s you guys.

“You’re standing in one direction and they’re standing in another direction looking at you. I was likening it to The Truman Show. Have you seen that movie?”

Yep, yep. It’s a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo.

Prince Harry

Harry replied: “Yep, yep. It’s a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo.”

He asked Dax what it was like to take a “s**load” of drugs as the presenter opened up about his past narcotic use. The 46-year-old US actor first started using them in high school.

He described his younger years as “having your head in the sand and fingers in your ears going ‘lalalalala’ — with the drugs giving him extra energy.

Dax added: “It’s driving me, it’s fuel. That’s when the burn-out happens. It’s like, ‘This isn’t ­normal’ but it feels great because I can get s done, I can work harder. Eventually it suddenly hits you and that’s not sustainable.”

In a discussion about privacy laws, the Prince repeated Dax’s example. He said: “Like you say, if you want to s*** on the kitchen table because there is no law against it, come on guys.”

The latest admissions come two months after Harry attacked Charles in the Oprah interview.

He claimed his father was “trapped” in the Royal Family and alleged he had been “literally cut off financially”.

The Queen has ordered Charles and Harry’s brother William to investigate the Sussexes’ claims, which include a family member being racist.

Clarence House was approached for comment.