Prince Harry’s interview with trauma specialist Gabor Maté has come back into the spotlight as the expert has spoken of his regret for agreeing to host the in-depth chat.
Maté has said the interview has had a profound negative effect on him and has lashed out at two aspects of his chat that explored what the Duke of Sussex had revealed in his tell-all memoir Spare.
The interview, which took place on March 4 and required online guests to pay £20 to tune in, saw Harry make a whole host of fresh allegations against the Royal Family – such as accusing King Charles of “traumatising” him as a child by refusing to give him hugs.
The trauma expert claims he “lost” himself and neglected to follow his “gut” over the interview with Harry, which was organised by their joint publisher Penguin Roundhouse and streamed globally to a paying audience.
Chatting on a new episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast, Maté said he felt profoundly uncomfortable that the discussion was put behind a paywall.
Click here to join our Whatsapp community to be the first to receive news about the Royal family
He said: “I had a gut feeling all along that I shouldn’t agree to doing it the way they set it up.
“The way it was set up was, in order to watch it people had to buy a copy of Harry’s book and I thought this is not fair, four million people have already bought the book, why can’t they watch this interview? Do they have to buy another copy?
“In other words I believed that this should be a free public service, on a part of two people who can have a very interesting conversation, but out of sheer opportunism I agreed to it. So, I didn’t follow my gut feelings, I lost myself even in agreeing to the format.”
The expert said that both he and Harry pushed for the recording of the event to be released to the general public, but they were told it would have breached the rules – as it was publicised as a one-time interview.
Maté added that while he disagreed with the format of the interivew, he had no objections to sitting down with Harry.
His second criticism of the televised discussion was the “demeaning” and “dismissive” reaction online, which included labeling him a “stern, overbearing merchant of pain.”
He said the negative portrayals really affected him.
The pair’s chat took place two months after Harry’s memoir was released and helped to further drive publicity for the bestselling book. Those who paid the fee to watch the interview also received a free copy in the post.
Before it aired, much criticism was made for putting the chat behind a paywall – especially as Harry had given several public interviews in the months that followed the publication of Spare.
