00:00We wanted people to be able to not just see themselves but to see their family members
00:04and to know that everybody's going through something.
00:12Thank you both for holding space for such an incredibly important conversation. And the timing
00:19of it right now, I mean, it couldn't be more appropriate. Were you all working on this
00:24docu-series before the pandemic? Way before. Just over two years now?
00:32Yeah. Way before. The fact that the timing is perfect now for a pandemic because everybody is
00:42primed to understand what it means to be isolated and what it feels like to maintain a mental
00:50balance or mental well-being only makes it more poignant in this moment. But we started talking
00:56about it because in our first conversation, one of our first conversations together, I asked Harry,
01:03Prince Harry, I said, you know, what are the two most important issues you think facing the world
01:10right now? And he said climate change for sure and mental well-being, mental health. And I started to
01:19talk about the Apple TV Plus series that I was in development for and really was just in the
01:26beginning stages. I just had a conversation with Tim Cook and Zach and the team about it and saying I
01:31wanted to do it, but hadn't put the team together yet. And Harry said to me, as I turned to leave,
01:40he said, if you ever need any help with that, let me know. And I went, okay. Did you say if I
01:48needed any help, sir? That's how this happened? Well, I'm so happy that it did. And he actually
01:56meant it, Charlie. This is what is exciting to me, is that he actually meant it. Because you know,
02:00normally, no, I thought it was like one of those let's have lunch some days.
02:05All right. Maybe we'll get together or something.
02:06I'm so happy that this match happened, you know, and Prince Harry listening to you speak about really
02:19in so many ways for the first time so vulnerably losing your mother at a young age. I lost my mom
02:24when I was nine. And I think everybody watching that listening to you say you weren't blocking the
02:30pain. You just really hadn't felt it yet, you know, and you didn't know that. So what is your message
02:35to anyone out there right now who maybe lost their parent to COVID, especially young people?
02:40Because that that's a really, really pain.
02:43Well, first of all, Charlie, I'm really sorry to hear that you lost your mom at such a young age.
02:46That's, that's painful. I think my, my, I haven't, I haven't lost anyone close to COVID. So it is,
02:56it's different in that sense. But my advice would always be to work it through to allow your body,
03:03your mind to process the loss, to process the grief. Like that's a very human thing that we
03:09should be doing. But the way that society has become inevitably encourages us to hold it in.
03:17But, you know, I think someone said to me the other day, that from the moment that you are born,
03:22life is trauma. So if we look, if we look at it like that, and realize that every single day,
03:27week, month, obviously, for some people, it's way more than others. But the traumatic experiences,
03:33happen all the time. But my advice would be, yeah, just, just to, to process it and to understand
03:40that that is, that's a huge deal to lose anyone, mother, father, grandparent, brother, sister,
03:45whatever it is, like any loss within family is, is something where you really, really need to
03:51process it, because otherwise it manifests itself. And then it will affect you later in life. There's no
03:56part of this where you can just absorb loss, grief, pain, trauma over and over again as you get older.
04:04And then for it not to show up in a different way, perhaps through rejection, depression, whatever
04:11it is. So really, be as proactive as possible, and accept that, you know, what has happened to you
04:17is, is painful and hurtful, but you need to heal, and we all need to heal together.
04:22Absolutely. And I think this, this vacu-series is really powerful, because you all are telling so
04:27many different kinds of stories. And the message really is, tell your story to whoever's listening.
04:34And Ms. Winfrey, listening to you talk about your decades-long relationship with Alex,
04:39that was incredibly moving, you know, for us to really follow up on where you all have been and
04:44what you've been through. And you told her it just takes one person to see you. I'm curious,
04:51who is that one person for you today? And what is your advice to anyone who's looking around like,
04:57I don't see my one person?
05:00Great question. Well, that's a, that is a great question. And one of the most important things is
05:06it doesn't have to be somebody in your family. And it, you know, a lot of people think that you have
05:11to have a family member or it has to be something that you were born into or born with. It's anybody
05:17who is willing to actually see you and validate your personal humanity. That's what could make a
05:25difference in a person's life. And, you know, I was able to do that for Alex. But one of the things that
05:30we wanted to emphasize for this series is that every one of us is on a spectrum, Charlie.
05:36Yeah. And if, let's say that spectrum is one to 10, on any given day, you may be a 10 plus. Some
05:43days I feel like I'm an 11, 12. And on another day, you may be a minus two or minus four. And
05:49one of the reasons we wanted to include post-traumatic stress as is experienced by Alex and schizophrenia
05:56experienced by Amber, depression with Damar and Rashad and Ian is because we wanted people to be able to
06:03not just see themselves but to see their family members and to know that everybody's going through
06:09something. And in our country alone, in the United States of America, one out of five people say
06:15they're struggling from some form of mental illness. One out of five means either you or somebody you know
06:21is going through something on any given day. And your ability just to ask that question, you know,
06:27are you okay? And to be able to look at a person from the point of view of what has happened to them
06:33and not just what they are displaying, what the experience is showing you, I think is invaluable.
06:40And I think that's one of the things our series is going to be able to do. You know, it's another
06:44form of people being able to say, ah, this happened to me. Ah, I felt that too. Me also. Yeah.
06:52It's liberating. Yes. It's liberating. And one of the biggest blocks across the world
07:00from stopping people seeking help is stigma. So like that's why this project matters so much.
07:06That's why people were willing to come forward and share and be vulnerable because that is the
07:12only way that we're going to break the stigma. And stigma thrives on silence. So anyone that's trying
07:17to silence anybody only makes the situation worse. So, you know, we are, you know, this, this is,
07:22this is, this is the beginning, you know, this, this, this series is hopefully going to start a global
07:27conversation. It already has had a very, very important time when the desire and the need for it
07:35is at its probably at its worst that it's been certainly for a long time. We know, but one of the
07:39first conversation in that first conversation we had, we talked about the fact there's a mental
07:42health crisis. There's a global mental health crisis. And that was, that was pre-COVID. So
07:49this is really like, this is, people have gone through a shared experience here.
07:53You know, one of the most important moments, powerful moments in the series, every story has its own
07:59emphasis and its own strength and power. But one of the ones that just lives with me is Fauzi's story,
08:06the little refugee boy. And when his doctor is saying to him that there are 2000s warring inside
08:16yourself, and that we've got to be able to figure this out. Otherwise, 20 years from now,
08:22that warring little boy wins. And now you are a warring man. And that struck me so because I see
08:29that's what's happening in our streets with so many of our children, is that nobody ever
08:35said that or helped them process that. And there's literally a war going on between the good and the
08:43lightness and the dark. So I hope that people will be able to see themselves and find a way to be more
08:49open in their own conversations about what's happened to them, and also particularly being
08:56more receptive to what's happened to other people in your life.
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