Prince Harry said he wanted to quit the royal family in his early 20s because of 'what it did to my mom'

• Prince Harry has revealed he wanted to quit life as a royal when he was in his early 20s.
• "I was thinking, I don't want this job, look what it did to my mom," he told Dax Shepard.
• Harry said he felt "completely helpless as a kid" watching his mother get chased by the paparazzi.

Long before he and Meghan Markle shocked the world by stepping away from the royal family, Prince Harry was already dreaming about his exit from Buckingham Palace.

The Duke of Sussex got candid this week on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, revealing that he wanted to quit the world of royalty when he was in his early 20s.

"I was thinking, I don't want this job, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mom," Harry told the actor. "How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it's going to happen again? I've seen behind the curtain, I've seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works and I don't want to be part of this."

Prince Harry touched on his struggles of growing up in the harsh spotlight

The Duke of Sussex described it as a mix between living in a zoo and "The Truman Show," a 1998 film - starring Jim Carrey - about a man who discovers that his entire life has been secretly filmed and broadcast to the masses for their entertainment.

Fame often left Harry feeling helpless, which he said has always been "my biggest sort of Achilles heel."

"The three major times I felt completely helpless: One was when I was a kid in the back of the car and my mom was being chased by paparazzi," Harry told Shepard. "Two was in Afghanistan in an Apache helicopter, and the third was with my wife."

"Those were the moments in my life where, yeah, feeling helpless hurts, it really hurts. And that's when you think to yourself, s---, I've got the privilege, I've got the platform, I've got the influence, and even I can't fix this, I can't change this. And when you start getting into your head about it, that's when it starts taking a toll."

Harry said he tried to 'run away' from his mental health struggles when he was young

"Every one of us will try to find some way to mask the actual feeling, and try to feel different than how we actually feel," he said.

Harry made headlines throughout his 20s for his hard-partying ways, including playing strip poker in a Las Vegas hotel.

"I certainly didn't have the awareness when I was going wild," he told Shepard. "Like, why am I actually doing this? Well, in the moment it was like, why not? I'm in my 20s. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it?"

Prince Harry said Meghan Markle encouraged him to start therapy after they began dating and it was 'like the bubble was burst'

"I plucked my head out of the sand and gave it a good shake off and I was like, you're in this position of privilege, stop complaining and stop thinking you want something different," he continued. "Make this different, because you can't get out. How are you going to do these things differently? How are you going to make your mom proud and use this platform to really affect change?"

It was this realization that helped Prince Harry open up about his own mental health to the public.

"I feel more comfortable now talking about my own struggles because I do it to help other people," he said. "I don't see it as complaining, and I don't think anyone should see talking about your own issues as complaining."

"It's about sharing your story, knowing how relatable it is. Because I guarantee you that, by sharing the vulnerabilities and experiences you've had growing up, you're going to have a positive impact on someone's life," he said.