Prince Harry and Oprah appeared on Good Morning America Friday in support of the release of The Me You Can't See, their mental health docuseries on Apple TV+. In both the interview and the series, the two speak to their own experiences with mental health, as do a number of other prominent figures.
For Harry, one of the people whose experience he most closely identified with was Zak Williams, son of late comedian Robin Williams, who died by suicide in August 2014 at 63 years old.
"Zak's story is a classic example, and the sort of parallel thread between what happened with him at his age and what happened to me at my age. It's remarkably similar," Harry shared.
"But there was one thing that he said in a follow-up conversation, which was his service to others has helped heal him, and I think that was a really key moment for Oprah, myself, and Zak … to go, 'Wow, this, it's true.'"
"Oprah, in your career [it's true]. It's been true for me in starting the Invictus Games, to be able to create something," Harry continued.
"And I think the passionate element of that — being able to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and being able to help in that healing process, is absolutely critical."
In the series, Zak gets very vulnerable about his feelings surrounding his father's suicide and his life in the aftermath. In a discussion about generational trauma, he explains that his struggles with mental health and drug abuse were very similar to those of his father.
"There's a generational issue going on," Zak began.
"I've experienced mental health issues my entire life. I had obsessive compulsive disorder — having to count out certain actions before I went to bed at night, obsessing over things. I didn't sleep very much as a kid."
"I had really bad insomnia, a lot of energy and a racing mind and I inherited that to some degree," Zak continued.
Zak then explained that he began looking to drugs and alcohol to "calm" those feelings. "It just became part of my identity," he noted.
"I'm just like, 'I can do this so I can get through the day,'" he explained.
"And the weird thing for me, I would take uppers. I would take cocaine and the like to calm down. I talked to my dad about it — he was similar. He would use uppers as a way of focusing and relaxing."
"I started to realize elements of myself that were like him," Zak shared.
"My anxiety, my bouts of depression, OCD, drugs, drinking like him."
Eventually, Robin chose to stop drinking, after which Zak says they grew a "deeper, more profound understanding of one another."
"Which is around the time that I first realized I had a problem," Zak said.
"So we engaged around that. I wanted to be able to get to know him better; I didn't understand what he had been through."
Losing Robin was incredibly difficult for Zak, who felt like there was more for them to connect over.
"There were just things I wanted to tell him, and things I wanted to talk through with him," he said.
"I did get the opportunity to do some of that but not to the level that I wanted to."
Zak struggled with depression and drug use. "My life became unmanageable as part of that. I was just angry and sad and didn't want to feel anything, so it just created wreckage," he shared.
"I was drinking to excess, damaging my relationship with my family. I was experiencing psychosis. It was difficult for me to have just normal engagements with people, because I felt so broken and so isolated. I needed help."
"I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that was a wake-up call," he revealed.
"I needed to change my life. I had to cut out the self-medicating and experience the things that I needed to experience and just feel despite how painful it all felt."
Zak has managed to make a beautiful life out of a dark situation. He has gotten help, and he advocates for mental health today. He's married to wife Olivia June as of October 2020. The two have a 2-year-old son, McLaurin, and are expecting a little girl any day now.
Being a parent has changed a lot for Zak. "I'm committed to being sober and continuing to treat the underlying symptoms that led me to addictive behavior," he shared.
"It's only in hindsight that you see, 'Wow, there's a generational issue going on.' I love being a parent; it's the best thing ever. Do I see it as an opportunity to break a generational cycle? Yeah, there's a major opportunity to show up for my son clear-eyed and focused. To be there for him."
