Prince Harry has likened his life as a member of the Royal Family to The Truman Show.
Prince Harry said that being a Royal was a “mix of the Truman Show and being in a zoo” during an appearance as a guest on the Armchair Expert podcast with hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman.
Show host Shepard was the first to suggest that life as a Royal could be compared to the Truman show because the Royal Family was like a small group on a stage and the rest of the world was the audience.
“There is the whole country and then [there are] you guys, and you are standing in one direction and they are standing in the other direction looking at you, the whole world,” Shepard said, according to Express.
“I was liking it to The Truman Show,” Shepard added.
Harry agreed with Shepard’s suggestion that Royal life was like being on the Truman Show. It was “a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
The Truman Show is a 1998 movie that followed Truman Burbank (played by comedian Jim Carrey) who discovered that his life from childhood was, in fact, a reality TV show.
Truman attempted to escape from his reality TV show life after discovering the truth.
Harry said the issue about being a Royal was that ‘you inherit every element of it without a choice’
Shepard went on to suggest that Harry’s life as a Royal was like being “cast into a movie without being asked.”
“I don’t know whether anybody can actually understand, I think Truman Show would be the closest thing,” the podcast host added.
“The biggest issue for me was that being born into it, you inherit the risk,” Harry replied. “You inherit every element of it without a choice. And because of the way the UK media are, they feel an ownership over you.”
Harry and Meghan secretly met at a supermarket when she first visited him in London
Harry also revealed how he and Meghan arranged to secretly meet up at a supermarket when she came to London to visit him in 2016.
Harry and Meghan, who were dating at the time, pretended they did not know each other. They stood apart in the supermarket and communicated by texting each other.
He tried to stay incognito by pulling a baseball cap over his face and looking down at the floor.
Harry revealed he’d wanted to quit royal life in his twenties
Harry also said he realized years ago that he didn’t want to be a Royal.
He said he told himself in his early 20s that “I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be doing this, look what it did to my mum.”
He added the “bubble burst” when he started therapy after he met Meghan.
While undergoing therapy, he decided to try to use his position of privilege to make a difference. He decided to dedicate himself to philanthropic projects that focus on ordinary people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Harry and Oprah’s new mental health docuseries will be released later in the month
Harry appeared on the Armchair Expert podcast ahead of the May 21 release of his new Apple TV documentary series about mental health, titled The Me You Can’t See.
Monsters & Critics reported that Harry created the series in collaboration with Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah talked about the upcoming series when she recently appeared with Dr. Bruce D. Perry on The Drew Barrymore Show.
She talked about her book, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, that she co-authored with Dr. Perry.
It was also reported that Oprah appeared on The Nancy O’Dell Channel on talkshoplive to promote her new book.