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Prince Harry Sought Help Decades After Losing His Mom, Princess Diana

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) --Britain's Prince Harry sought counseling in his late twenties to help deal with the grief of losing his mother more than a decade earlier, he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper who published the interview on Monday.

Harry, whose mother Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when he was just 12, said he had come "very close to a complete breakdown" on several occasions after shutting down his emotions, impacting both his work and his personal life.

"From an emotional side, I was like 'right, don't ever let your emotions be part of anything'," he said in the interview.

Princess Diana(L), her sons Harry(2nd L)
Princess Diana(L), her sons Harry(2nd L) and William(2nd R), and Prince Charles(R) watch the parade march past as part of the commemorations of VJ Day 19 August in London. (JOHNNY EGGITT/AFP/Getty Images)

He added that his older brother Prince William had encouraged him to seek help and had seen "a shrink" several times. He also took up boxing to help deal with aggression after feeling he was "on the verge of punching someone".

The princes' mother Diana was married to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles between 1981 and 1996, when the couple divorced. She was killed when the car she was in crashed while being chased by paparazzi on motorbikes.

Prince Harry now works with a charity that promotes mental health and uses his public persona to carry on many of Diana's charities.

In an interview with CBS This Morning last year, Prince Harry said he hoped it would make his mother proud.

"I hope she'd be sitting up there having her own little party and looking down thinking-- what-- what-- what we've achieved, 'cause it's a massive, massive team effort," said Prince Harry.

The recent interview was all about erasing the stigma around mental illness.

Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate will all be cheering on runners at the London Marathon next week as part of that campaign.

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