Prince Harry claims 'my life as a British royal was like The Truman Show' in podcast interview

Duke of Sussex reveals he moved to the US to break the chain of suffering

Prince Harry said his life as a senior working royal felt like living in 'The Truman Show', a film starring Jim Carey. AFP

The Duke of Sussex compared his life to The Truman Show in an interview exploring his decision to step down as a senior working British royal.

Prince Harry told the Armchair Expert podcast that life in the spotlight was "a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo".

In the 1998 film, the protagonist, played by Jim Carrey, discovers his life is actually a reality TV show where almost every action is controlled.

Harry described what it was like to be part of a “tiny group" of royals "watched by millions” around the world.

He agreed when asked if it felt like living “in a cage”.

"It's the job, right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early 20s and I was thinking 'I don't want this job, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing this'," he said.

"Look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family, when I know it's going to happen again?"

In February, the duke and his wife Meghan opened the royal family up to accusations of racism after revealing they were asked "how dark" their soon-to-be-born son Archie's skin would be.

The couple said it felt liberating to be freed from the shackles of royal life, while Harry revealed that his father Prince Charles stopped taking his phone calls after he decided to step down as a senior royal.

He said Meghan encouraged him to seek professional help for his mental health while in the UK.

“Once I started doing therapy, 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 – make this different',” he said.

“'How are you going to do these things differently, how are you going to make your mum proud and use this platform to really effect change?'”

Harry, who is expecting his second child this year, said he moved his family to the US to “break the cycle” of suffering.

“If I've experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I'm going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don't pass it on,” he said.

'It's a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say 'you know what, that happened to me, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to you'.”

Harry was last seen in the UK after the death of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose funeral was on April 17.

In a tribute released after his death, Harry described him as the “master of the barbecue, legend of banter, and cheeky right ’til the end”.