Over the past year, Prince Harry has faced increased scrutiny over his history with illegal drug taking after making a number of revelations about his experiences and their effects in his hit memoir Spare.
In the book—and interviews promoting it—Harry spoke in detail for the first time about his recreational use of cocaine, magic mushrooms and marijuana (illegal in Britain), as well as psychedelics such as ayahuasca as a form of therapy.
Though the prince made clear he was not wishing to encourage the use of these substances, he faced criticism for potentially doing so.
In a more serious form of backlash, a conservative think tank in the U.S., The Heritage Foundation, is seeking access to Harry’s visa paperwork to see if he disclosed his history with drugs when seeking to enter the country.
Initial attempts to access the paperwork were blocked by the U.S. government, with The Heritage Foundation currently embroiled in legal action seeking to have this blockade removed.
As this case remains ongoing, here Newsweek looks at what Harry said about his history with drugs, both in Spare and interviews given since his split from the monarchy in 2020.
‘I Was Trying To Mask Something’
In the 2021 docuseries The Me You Can’t See, developed in collaboration with Oprah Winfrey, Harry discussed how he failed to emotionally process the death of his mother Princess Diana when he was just 12 years old in 1997.
The prince revealed that he spent years trying to “mask” his emotions and in doing so looked to alcohol and drugs.
Prince Harry to Oprah Winfrey in The Me You Can’t See
“I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs. I was willing to do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling. But I slowly became aware that, ok, I wasn’t drinking Monday to Friday but I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night. And I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something.”
Marijuana School Days
In Spare, billed as a “raw” and “unflinching” memoir telling his life story, Harry discussed his introduction to marijuana when he was a schoolboy at the prestigious Eton College near Windsor Castle.
The prince and his school friends would smoke together in a dormitory bathroom, going on to disclose regular use of the drug throughout his life.
Prince Harry in Spare
“I don’t remember how we got the stuff. One of my mates, I expect. Or maybe several. Whenever we found ourselves in possession, we’d commandeer a tiny upstairs bathroom, wherein we’d implement a surprisingly thoughtful, orderly assembly line. Smoker straddled the loo beside the window, second boy leaned against the basin, third and fourth boys sat in the empty bath, legs dangling over, waiting their turns. You’d take a hit or two, blow the smoke out of the window, then move on to the next station, in rotation, until the spliff was gone. Then we’d all head to one of our rooms and giggle ourselves sick over an episode or two of a new show. Family Guy. I felt an inexplicable bond with Stewie, prophet without honor.”
Country Houses and Cocaine
In his book, Harry recounts an incident where a tabloid editor claimed to have photographs of the teenage prince taking cocaine in a bid to convince him to collaborate on an interview.
After calling the editor’s bluff, where no photograph was ever produced, the prince revealed that he had used cocaine at that time, though quickly decided that the effect was not worth the risk associated with it.
At this time though, he said that drugs were an escape from his mental and emotional anguish still impacting him from the death of his mother.
Prince Harry in Spare
“Of course…I had been doing cocaine around this time. At someone’s country house, during a shooting weekend, I’d been offered a line, and I’d done a few more since. It wasn’t much fun, and it didn’t make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal. Feel. Different. I was a deeply unhappy 17-year-old boy willing to try almost anything that would alter the status quo. That was what I told myself anyway.”
Mushrooms and Ayahuasca
In discussing a way of better connecting with his emotions and past trauma, Harry also revealed in Spare his use of psychedelics. These included magic mushrooms and ayahuasca.
Prince Harry in Spare
“Psychedelics did me some good as well. I’d experimented with them over the years, for fun, but now I’d begun to use them therapeutically, medicinally. They didn’t simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality. Under the influence of these substances I was able to let go of rigid preconcepts, to see that there was another world beyond my heavily filtered senses, a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful—a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth. After the psychedelics wore off my memory of that world would remain: This is not all there is. All the great seers and philosophers say our daily life is an illusion. I always felt the truth in that. But how reassuring it was, after nibbling a mushroom, or ingesting ayahuasca, to experience it for myself.”
‘These Things Have a Way of Working’
After Spare was published, Harry undertook several interviews promoting it with networks in both the U.S. and U.K.
Speaking to Anderson Cooper for a 60 Minutes special, the prince was asked about his use of psychedelics, after which he made clear he would “never recommend” their recreational use, but accepted that in a controlled environment he found them to be beneficial for his mental health.
Prince Harry to Anderson Cooper, 60 Minutes
Cooper: “You write in the book about psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, mushrooms?”
Harry: “I would never recommend people to do this recreationally. 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.”
Cooper: “They showed you something. What did they show you?”
Harry: “For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield the misery of loss. They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that—that my mother, 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.”
‘Public Interest’
In another interview, this time for a British audience, the prince said that he believed it was “important to acknowledge” his past drugs use, but when questioned whether as a royal prince in line to inherit the throne the media had a right to report on it as a matter of public interest at the time (something he has been critical of), he swerved giving an answer.
Prince Harry to Tom Bradby, ITV
Bradby: “There’s a fair amount of drugs [in the book], um, marijuana, magic mushrooms, cocaine. I mean, that’s gonna surprise people.”
Harry: “But important to acknowledge.”
Bradby: “I mean, I think it’s an example of the scale of honesty. You don’t seem to hold anything back. You tell the story about cocaine through this tabloid editor, you said, came to you and said, ‘I’ve got a picture of you taking cocaine…’”
Harry: “Didn’t come to me, he came to someone else.”
Bradby: “Yeah. OK. ‘But we’re gonna release it unless you give us a tell-all interview,’ whatever it was they wanted. And you say, ‘I called their bluff,’ and you’re quite pleased with it. But I just wanna be clear, are you really saying that, third in line to the throne or whatever you were, you taking a class A drug is not a matter of public interest? Cause I think that’s a question people will have. Do you accept that is a matter of public interest for the press?”
Harry: “I think what’s a matter of public interest is, is the relationship between the institution with the tabloid media. That to me is more public interest in, anything else.”
