• The Crown season 6 shows Prince Harry as a cigarette smoker at university
• Harry has cited being on ‘autopilot’ and even McDonald’s for the habit
• Prince Harry has also admitted to using marijuana and other drugs

The Crown season 6 part 2 has just premiered on Netflix. We see a young Prince Harry on numerous occasions with a cigarette in hand. In recent years, Prince Harry has opened up on why he picked up the habit, as well as some of the experiences he had taking other drugs such as marijuana.

Prince Harry on why he started smoking cigarettes

In his tell-all memoir ‘Spare’, Harry dished out the details of why he picked up smoking as a teenager, and why the habit continued well into his later years at university – as seen in The Crown season 6.

“Sometimes my new mates and I would escape, head for Windsor Bridge, which connected Eton to Windsor over the River Thames,” he said. “Specifically, we’d head to the underside of the bridge, where we could smoke tabbage in privacy.

“My mates seemed to enjoy the naughtiness of it, whereas I just did it because I was on autopilot. Sure, I fancied a cig after a McDonald’s, who didn’t? But if we were going to bunk off, I’d much prefer heading over to Windsor Castle golf course, knocking a ball around, while drinking a wee beer.”

“Still, like a robot, I took every cig offered me, and in the same automatic, unthinking way,” explained the Duke, admitting that “I soon graduated to weed.”

Meghan helped her husband kick the habit

In the years that followed, Prince Harry was snapped on numerous occasions by the paparazzi with a cigarette in hand. Thankfully, the royal was able to kick the habit sometime around 2018 with the help of soon-to-be-wife Meghan Markle.

A source closer to the couple told People Magazine how “Meghan encouraged Harry to get rid of any remnants of his party lifestyle, she wanted him to get in shape and be healthy [for their wedding].

“Harry has lost weight, started a healthier diet and even gave up smoking cigarettes, they both felt amazing leading up to the wedding. And he couldn’t have done it without her support.”

Royal claimed smoking marijuana “really helped him mentally”

Prince Harry has been remarkably forthcoming about his use of drugs, including his experiences with cocaine, magic mushrooms, and marijuana.

In Spare, Prince Harry revealed he would routinely roll and smoke a marijuana joint in the evenings when Meghan Markle and son Archie were asleep, while living at Tyler Perry’s house in 2020.

“Late at night, with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows,” the 39-year-old wrote.

“Then I’d sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint. The house looked down onto a valley, across a hillside thick with frogs. I’d listen to their late-night song, smell the scented air.”

Harry ‘knew it was wrong’

Yet his first experience with cannabis came during his time at Eton College, when he also admitted to smoking the drug on the grounds of Kensington Palace.

“I knew this was bad behavior,” he admitted. “I knew it was wrong. My mates knew too. We talked about it often, while stoned, how stupid we were to be wasting an Eton education.”

Earlier this year, Harry also sat down with Dr Gabor Mate for a fascinating TV interview about his history with drug use, in which he admitted cocaine “didn’t do anything for me.”

“It was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point,” he said.

Harry smoked marijuana after his first date with Meghan

On the contrary, “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me” he said.

“It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold on to for a period of time. I started doing it recreationally and then started to realize how good it was for me, I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and pains of the past.”

Prince Harry also revealed that he smoked cannabis after his first date with Markle in 2016 when he went to debrief a friend.

“He took one look at my face and said: ‘What’s happened?’ I didn’t want to tell him. I kept thinking: Do not tell him. Do not tell him. Do not tell him. I told him.

“I recounted the entire date, then pleaded: ‘[Expletive] mate, what am I going to do?’ Out came the tequila. Out came the weed. We drank and smoked and watched… [Disney film] Inside Out.”

The Crown season 6 part 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

If you’ve been affected by this story, you can contact American Addiction Centers on (877) 686-7688. Or Talk To Frank on 0300 123 6600 in the UK.

If you need help in quitting smoking, talk first to your doctor and establish a support network with close friends and family.

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