Prince Harry spoke candidly about his recreational use of illegal drugs during an intimate conversation with a toxic trauma expert.
The discussion grew out of an “intimate conversation” on Saturday evening about “living with loss and personal healing” between the Duke and Dr Gabor Mate.
Tickets to the live stream, which cost £17, include a bound copy of the Prince’s recent memoir, Spare.
King Charles’s second son said marijuana had “really helped” him, but cocaine and alcohol were “more social.”
The timing of the discussion is particularly inconvenient for the palace, just days after it was announced that King Charles was evicting Harry and his wife Meghan Markle from Frogmore Cottage, their country home on the Windsor estate.
Asked by Dr Mate if he saw himself as a victim, Harry said: ‘I certainly don’t’
The livestream costs £17 and comes with a bound copy of the Duke’s memoir
Trauma expert Dr Gabor Mate spoke about how people used drugs to cope with problems in their lives before asking Harry’s about his reasons for using drugs, including cocaine and cannabis.
“The first one you mentioned didn’t do anything for me, it was more of a social thing. It gave me a sense of belonging and probably made me feel different from how I felt,” said Harry.
“Marijuana is different, that really helped me.”
The prince said alcohol was also “more of a social thing” and complained about peer pressure around drinking.
Dr. Mate, who has faced numerous controversies in the past, denied allegations that he had been threatened with arrest by the Canadian government for using Ayahuasca on his patients.
In 2011, Health Canada threatened to sue the trauma expert if he didn’t stop using the Amazonian plant to treat addiction.
In the two years before he received the warning, Dr. Mate administered the drug to between 150 and 200 patients.
The addiction doctor said during the conversation: “I was never threatened with arrest.”
He also spoke about the side effect of the drugs and denied that they can include vomiting and hallucinations.
He said, ‘You sometimes purify with it, that’s good.
“It doesn’t give you hallucinations – it gives you visions… You think it’s really happening.”
Dr. Mate added, “I don’t think it’s a panacea for coping with trauma.”
Harry agreed and described his own experiences using psychedelics.
He said, “It was cleaning the windshield, removing the filters of life.
“It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, liberation, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold on to for a while
“For me, I started doing it recreationally and then started to realize how good it was for me. I would say it’s one of the fundamental parts of my life that has changed me and helped me deal with the trauma and pain of the past.”
Prince Harry admitted in his explosive memoir Spare that he used cocaine, smoked weed and tried magic mushrooms at Courtney Cox’s house as a teenager.
Courtney Cox responded last week to the claims ahead of her induction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She told Variety that the prince had stayed with her for “a few days” and was “a very nice person.”
‘I haven’t read the book. I do want to hear it, because I’ve heard it’s really entertaining. But yes, it called me back.
Prince Harry sat down with trauma expert Dr Gabor Maté for a livestreamed event on ‘trauma and healing’
Dr. Maté told Prince Harry that he believes he has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which can affect people’s concentration and cause them to be easily distracted
Prince Harry has admitted to using psychedelics – magic mushrooms, psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) and ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic from the leaves of a bush – in an attempt to help him heal from ‘grief’
‘I’m not saying there were mushrooms! I certainly wasn’t handing them out,” the actress said.
Dr. Mate has also received criticism for comments made in the past and Harry has come under fire for sharing a platform with him.
The doctor has drawn anger for his history of controversial comments, including comparing Hamas to the Jewish heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis.
The 79-year-old Hungarian-Canadian Holocaust survivor has also defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians and once labeled the Israeli government as “terrorists.”
The ‘intimate talk’ stems from the Sussex camp’s concerns over the recent revelation that they will be asked to move out of their Windsor home – which may be handed over to Prince Andrew.
The couple were reportedly given ‘weeks’ to pack up their UK home at Frogmore Cottage after Harry’s memoir Spare hit shelves in January.
Earlier this week, journalist Omid Scobie claimed some members of the royal family were “appalled” by the decision to evict Harry and Meghan.
An insider is said to have told him: ‘It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment. It’s as if (the family) wants to remove them from the picture forever.’
But the pair are not as ‘baffled’ about the departure as previous reports have suggested, believing that ‘if we have to move, we will figure it out on our own,’ a source told The Times.
The revelation comes as preparations take place for King Charles’ coronation in May, amid speculation that Harry may not receive an invitation.
