Thread by @Telegraph

📺Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey are launching a 5-part series: The Me you Can't See

We look at what the series tells us about the Duke's state of mind – and why he has no regrets over his Oprah interview

🔓This article is currently free to read

🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2…

The @Telegraph's Bryony Gordon spoke to Prince Harry but 4 years ago at Kensington Palace for the #madworld podcast.

"Back then, there was a real sense of positivity in the air" Gordon writes.

“He had arrived in a good place”

➡️"But as he now knows – as we all now know – you can never predict what is just around the corner.

"Mental health, like so many other elements of life, has no absolutes," says Gordon

The work Harry has done on himself since – and the work he has done in understanding mental health more generally – is reflected in The Me You Can’t See.

🎥The documentary series has been quietly in the works with Oprah Winfrey and Apple TV+ for the past 2 years

The series is based on a conversation between Harry and Oprah about mental health, the pair shepherding the way for experts and sufferers.

They talk about some of the most misunderstood illnesses and conditions:
📌Schizophrenia
📌OCD
📌PTSD
📌Effects of unresolved trauma

A criticism of the mental health movement has been an unwillingness to talk about more complex conditions such as psychosis.

☀️"This series will be a ray of light for those who often feel ignored by the mainstream conversations that tend to focus on anxiety and depression"

Well known names will be joining the conversation, including:
📌Lady Gaga, who has suffered PTSD
📌Glenn Close, whose sister has bipolar disorder

Harry is also expected to open up about his struggles with mental health

🎥The series has been co-directed by the four-time Bafta-winning Asif Kapadia and the Emmy award-winning Dawn Porter.

It has been created with the backing of an advisory panel of 14 mental health experts

🔴 Oprah Winfrey said on the series: “Now more than ever, there is an immediate need to replace the shame surrounding mental health with wisdom, compassion and honesty,

“Our series aims to spark that global conversation”

🔴 Prince Harry said: “We are born into different lives, brought up in different environments, and as a result are exposed to different experiences,

“My hope is that this series will show there is power in vulnerability, connection in empathy and strength in honesty"

📢"There will, of course, always be people ready to criticise the Duke for this kind of language...

"The majority of psychotherapists and mental health professionals, who have spoken of ‘trauma’ and ‘shared experiences’ for decades, will not be among them," writes Gordon

❌"This is the language of recovery...

"It is nothing new – what is new is that someone born into the traditionally tight-lipped Royal family should be speaking it," Gordon continues

🌎Mental illness affects an estimated 792 million people across the world.

📌One in six working age adults in the UK reporting symptoms at any given time

❌'It is often suggested that Meghan has somehow changed him... But those close to Harry know that he had long been open to the shift we now see.

"Once he witnessed the way his wife was treated with what he perceived to be unconscious bias, he could not ignore it," Gordon says

📺"The Me You Can’t See, those close to him say, is a result of the Duke’s efforts to broaden his perspectives.

➡️"The anger of the past has gone, and it has been replaced with a sense of purpose," Gordon writes

"The Prince Harry we can’t see is perhaps the one we don’t want to – the one who is getting on just fine, happily following his own path.

"Speaking his truth in the hope of helping those who are unable to, and not caring how cheesy that sounds," Gordon said

🗓️Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry will premiere The Me You Can’t See on May 21 on Apple TV+

🔓This article is currently free to read

telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2…