According to acclaimed royal biographer Andrew Morton, Prince Harry was "struggling to find himself" in the years leading up to his relationship with Meghan Markle. The young royal developed a reputation as a 'party prince' and was often photographed at nightclubs, while he struggled to deal with the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, who died when he was 12 years old. The Duke of Sussex eventually met his future wife in the summer of 2016 after he had "cleaned up his act", and they were married two years later.

       In a conversation with royal commentators Rachel Burchfield and Jessica Robinson on Podcast Royal, biographer Andrew Morton said: "I think even when she fell for Harry, she insisted that he went for counselling for the anger issues that he had.

       "Two or three years before that, he was a very angry young man and he was taking on the world, he was taking on paparazzi photographers particularly.

       "He was stumbling out of bars dishevelled and worse the wear for drink and he didn't seem to have a compass.

       "He didn't know which way to turn, and at that time, he was struggling to find himself and struggling with the loss of his mother, struggling to come to terms with it and as a young man, he wasn't always the popular Harry of popular imagination. He was described in some fairly pejorative terms for some of his behaviour."

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       Before his relationship with Meghan, Harry had become embroiled in a series of scandals, which included him stripping naked in Las Vegas, experimenting with cannabis and attending a costume party dressed as a Nazi soldier.

       He was a well-known figure on the London party scene, and got into a "scuffle" with photographers outside the Pangea nightclub in 2004.

       Mr Morton continued: "For example, when he was in Las Vegas, he stripped naked in front of a group of strangers. By any standard, Prince or not, that's pretty out there behaviour and he said himself that it was 'too much army, not enough prince'.

       "Well, even in the Army, I don't think you tend to do that in a hotel suite in Vegas.

       "So, Meghan as she says herself, her favourite word is classy and Harry wasn't particularly classy three or four years beforehand."

       However, Mr Morton claimed that the prince later "found his cause in life" after leaving the British Army and helping to launch the Invictus Games, which is a Paralympic-style tournament for wounded veterans.

       He added: "He'd cleaned up his act, he'd gotten involved in the Invictus Games, he had found his cause in life and he stuck to that, helping disabled, mentally injured soldiers and servicewomen find themselves and I think that was something that helped him find himself."

       Speaking of his past indiscretions, Harry said that he had turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with the lasting trauma of losing his mother. Diana had died in a car crash in 1997 whilst being pursued by the paparazzi, leaving her two sons in the care of Prince Charles.

       Speaking to Oprah Winfrey, Harry said: “I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling."

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       The Duke of Sussex gave an intimate insight into his struggles with mental health as part of the documentary series 'The Me You Can't See', which he co-produced with Ms Winfrey for Apple TV+.

       He openly admitted that Meghan had played a crucial role in helping him seek therapy, saying: “I saw GPs. I saw doctors. I saw therapists. I saw alternative therapists. I saw all sorts of people, but it was meeting and being with Meghan.

       “I knew that if I didn’t do the therapy and fix myself that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.”

       Harry has now been in therapy for over four years and is a keen advocate for mental health. Since leaving the Royal Family, he has taken up a role with Silicon Valley startup BetterUp as a Chief Impact Officer and has made mental health a key focus of his and Meghan's non-profit foundation Archewell.

       He currently resides in Montecito, California, with Meghan and their two young children, Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana.