Prince Harry Gets Candid at New York Times’ DealBook Summit: ‘One of My Biggest Weaknesses Is Feeling Helpless’

Prince Harry is opening up about his painful past, as well as his hopes and fears for the future, in a wide-ranging sit-down interview in New York City.

On Dec. 4, the Duke of Sussex, 40, stepped out in N.Y.C. to attend the 2024 DealBook Summit organized by The New York Times. Prince Harry joined Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times columnist and founder of the outlet’s DealBook business and policy column, for a conversation on the main stage about disinformation in the media.

“I’ve seen stories written about myself not exactly based in reality.” Prince Harry said at the event. “When you grow up with that environment, you find yourself questioning the validity of the information, but also what other people are thinking as well, and how dangerous it can be over the course of time.”

“I think again, when you are kind of trapped within this bubble, it kind of feels like there’s no way out,” he added. “What happened to my mom and the fact that I was a kid and felt helpless, there comes the inner turmoil. I felt helpless. One of my biggest weaknesses is feeling helpless.”

Harry said, “What worried me most was worrying that would happen to me, or to my wife, or to my kids.”

Of reading about himself in the press, he told Sorkin, “Throughout my life there would be moments in my life when I read a lot and moments when I read nothing. I highly recommend the latter,” he added to laughter from the audience.

“Once you stop reading the stuff about yourself, you automatically remove the power from their hands. With that element of fear comes an element of control. and one of the reasons I probably didn’t, I guess, remove myself from that situation sooner was that very fear: ‘Well, they control the narrative,’ whatever I do or say, they can effectively control me and keep me in that space.'”

Of his complicated relationship with the press since the death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997 when he was just 12 years old, he said: “I was always convinced I needed to be angry or frustrated towards the press because of what they did to my mom,” adding that going to therapy a “blessing,” like “cleaning the windshield.”

He also divulged that to protect his peace, he doesn’t have Google alerts on himself and he doesn’t have social media.

Of his forthcoming phone hacking case in the U.K., he said, “This claim, the hacking stuff, is almost 15 years old. The coverup of the hacking is relatively new. I think that will be the piece that shocks the world. I scratch my head thinking, ‘You know, has this passed?’ And certainly that’s what they would like to think. In these five years, the retaliation and the intimidation for me as a witness has been extraordinary, especially towards my wife and children.”

Of the dangers of social media, an issue that has become increasingly important to his work through his and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation, he said: “I try to think at these things through the lens as a dad.”

“That’s one of the reasons we’re so focused on The Parents Network,” he said, referring to a piece of the work he and Meghan do with their non-profit Archewell for parents whose children’s lives have been lost to social media.

“It’s not a coincidence that the world has become more volatile and more divided since social media has been around for 20 years,” Harry added.

When asked what he thought of the First Amendment, he said to laughter, “There’s no way I’m going to talk about that.”

Closing out his panel discussion, Sorkin asked Harry what he wants to be known for in 30 years’ time, to which Harry replied: “The thing that means the most to me and the things I want to be known for is that no matter what was happening around…that he stuck to his values and he always stayed true to that principle.”

The 2024 DealBook Summit has a starry lineup, and other mainstage interviews include Jeff Bezos, Bill Clinton, Alex Cooper, Serena Williams (a friend of Harry and Meghan’s), Open AI co-founder Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Prince Harry’s appearance at the DealBook Summit may be his debut appearance at the event, but he’s actually following in his wife’s footsteps! Meghan, 43, was previously interviewed by Sorkin as part of The New York Times DealBook Online Summit in November 2021. The Duchess of Sussex participated in a discussion titled “Minding the Gap” about how women can reach economic and professional parity, where spoke about her view of paid leave as a “humanitarian issue.”

While Prince Harry is out on the East Coast, Meghan has a glamorous night ahead on the West Coast. The Duchess of Sussex is expected to attend the 2024 Paley Honors Fall Gala tonight in Beverly Hills, where she’ll help honor Perry with The Paley Honors Award, the highest honor from The Paley Center for Media.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were both on the hosting committee for their friend Perry, who is a godfather to their daughter, Princess Lilibet, 3, and appeared in their 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. (Prince Harry and Meghan also share son Prince Archie, 5.) 

As for Harry’s calendar, The New York Times described the DealBook Summit as a live journalism event which “will feature wide-ranging discussions on the most important stories across business, politics and culture.” A previous statement about Prince Harry’s participation listed his roles as the co-founder of the Archewell Foundation and Chief Impact Officer of BetterUp. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched the Archewell charity as a vehicle for their philanthropic work after stepping back from their royal roles and relocating to her home state of California in 2020. He took on the CIO role with BetterUp, a coaching and mental health platform, in 2021.

Prince Harry’s solo trip to N.Y.C. is his second in two months. In September, the Duke of Sussex spent a few days in New York City for a working trip that a spokesperson said would “advance a number of his patronages and philanthropic initiatives.”

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Harry’s busy itinerary included a dinner with the World Health Organization, Concordia Summit panel for The Diana Award (the only charity established in memory of his mother, the late Princess Diana) and engagements with The HALO Trust (the landmine-clearing charity that Princess Diana famously backed), African Parks and Travalyst. He also spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative about the Archwell Foundation’s Parents Network and the United Nations for an event hosted by Lesotho, where his charity Sentebale works.

Christina Williams is a Diana Award recipient who spoke onstage with Prince Harry, and told PEOPLE that his empathy left an impression. 

“I think my impression of him was that here is someone who is in a high-level role, who really cares about young people — cares about our voices and our actions,” Williams, 27, told PEOPLE. “He really cares about the causes that he represents.”