'Felt disregarded': Anne Heche slammed Prince Harry, Oprah for not calling her for mental health special
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Anne Heche, before she tragically died, criticized Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey for not seeking her advice on their mental health TV series. The 53-year-old actress had a lengthy history of mental health problems and actively promoted greater awareness of them until she died last month in a terrible vehicle accident.
Her book, 'Call Me Crazy', published in 2001, detailed her difficult upbringing, which included being sexually abused by her father, who subsequently passed away from an AIDS-related illness.
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Heche had to start working at the age of 12 to support her family since the family was poor and had to travel around a lot before being evicted from one home and being homeless. Heche mentioned on the 'Behind the Rope' podcast that she had authored a book called 'Call Me Sane' as a companion to her autobiography. She said that this book taught her how "the practice of how to get over your abuse and how to start living in love with yourself."
Heche felt "disregarded" because of her public advocacy for mental health when Oprah and the renowned royal did not ask her to participate in their Apple TV docuseries, 'The Me You Can't See'.
In the five-part series, Harry and Oprah talked about their trauma and associated mental health difficulties. They also interviewed a number of other well-known figures, such as Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, and basketball star DeMar DeRozan for the San Antonio Spurs. Anne had assumed that she would have been an obvious option to participate given her prominence and subject matter competence.
"Megan and Harry have had a lot to do with that, Oprah's had a lot to do with that, again they didn't ask me to be a part of that documentary and I'm like, "hello, I'm like the number one person that talks about mental health," she told David Yentef, 'Behind The Velvet Rope Podcast's host.
Heche did, however, acknowledge that she shared the Prince's perspective on mental health. She said, "Harry describes it as the things you were given, I feel the same way," She further added, "there is a threshold for understanding the threshold for disconnect that happens to us when you are being treated badly."
