Prince Harry has admitted he had counselling after going off the rails in his 20s, years after the death of his mother.
He said he endured two years of "total chaos" almost 20 years after he "shut down" his emotions following the road accident that killed Princess Diana.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said he had only tackled his grief when he was 28 and faced with the feeling that he was "on the verge of punching someone".
As a result, he spoke to a "shrink... more than a couple of times".
He said he was inspired to speak out because of his involvement with mental health charity Heads Together.
The royal told the newspaper: "I sort of buried my head in the sand for many years.
"Losing my mum at the age of 12 and shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a quite serious effect on, not only my personal life, but on my work as well.
"It was only three years ago... from the support around and my brother and other people saying 'you really need to deal with this - it's not normal to think that nothing has affected you'.
"My way of dealing with it was sticking your head in the sand - refusing to think about my mum because why would that help? I was like 'don't ever let your emotions be part of anything'.
"I was a typical 28-year-old going 'life is fine', and then I started to have a few conversations and then all of this grief that I never processed came to the forefront.
He continued: "It was only two years and I can count myself very lucky - two years of not thinking about it and two years of total chaos.
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