Prince Harry has made a number of unexpected revelations in his soon-to-be-published memoir, spanning from the disclosure that he was suffering from a frostbitten penis during the 2011 royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton to the graphic description of his losing his virginity at the age of 17 in an open field.
In addition to these, more distressing events are recounted in detail, such as the events surrounding the death and funeral of Princess Diana in 1997, the breakdown of his relationship with Prince William and ongoing isolation from his family in Britain.
Harry also describes his formative experiences in his teenage years and 20s, including, to the surprise of some, his recreational drug usage.
Here, Newsweek looks at everything Prince Harry has said about his drug use while promoting his memoir Spare ahead of its January 10 release.
"Important to Acknowledge"
Speaking to ITV's Tom Bradby on Sunday, Harry opened up about his experiences using cocaine as a teenager, something he describes in Spare having first tried at a hunting weekend party in order to feel something different.
In the book, the prince also describes an incident where a tabloid newspaper told him they had proof of his drug use and that they would expose it unless he agreed to give them an exclusive interview.
In Harry's Own Words:
Bradby: "There's a fair amount of drugs [in the book], um, marijuana, magic mushrooms, cocaine. I mean, that's gonna surprise people."
Harry: "But important to acknowledge."
Bradby: "I mean, I think it's an example of the scale of honesty. You don't seem to hold anything back. You tell the story about cocaine through this tabloid editor, you said, came to you and said, 'I've got a picture of you taking cocaine...'"
Harry: "Didn't come to me, he came to someone else."
Bradby: "Yeah. OK. 'But we're gonna release it unless you give us a tell-all interview,' whatever it was they wanted. And you say, 'I called their bluff,' and you're quite pleased with it. But I just wanna be clear, are you really saying that, third in line to the throne or whatever you were, you taking a class A drug is not a matter of public interest? Cause I think that's a question people will have. Do you accept that is a matter of public interest for the press?"
Harry: "I think what's a matter of public interest is, is the relationship between the institution with the tabloid media. That to me is more public interest in, anything else."
"I wanted to numb the feeling"
In his second interview promoting Spare, Harry sat down with Anderson Cooper for a 60 Minutes special and again, referenced his drug usage as an important step in his journey of self discovery.
Harry spoke about the quest to feel and find inner emotions during his teens and 20s, as well as experimenting with psychedelics as a form of processing grief.
In Harry's Own Words:
Harry: "It was obvious to us as kids the British press' part in our mother's misery and I had a lot of anger inside of me that luckily, I never expressed to anybody. But I resorted to drinking heavily. Because I wanted to numb the feeling, or I wanted to distract myself from how...whatever I was thinking. And I would, you know, resort to drugs as well."
Cooper [voiceover]: "Harry admits he smoked pot and used cocaine. And he writes that in his late 20s he felt 'hopeless' and 'lost.'"
Harry: "There was this weight on my chest that I felt for so many years that I was never able to cry. So I was constantly trying to find a way to cry, but—in even sitting on my sofa and going over as many memories as I could muster up about my mum. And sometimes I watched videos online..."
Cooper [voiceover]: "...He sought out help from a therapist for the first time seven years ago. And he reveals he's also tried more experimental treatments."
Cooper: "You write in the book about psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, mushrooms?"
Harry: "I would never recommend people to do this recreationally. But doing it with the right people if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma, then these things have a way of working as a medicine."
Cooper: "They showed you something. What did they show you?"
Harry: "For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield the misery of loss. They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that—that my mother, that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy."
Spare will be released globally on January 10.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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