Prince Harry once considered living as a commoner

Britain’s Prince Harry got so sick of the royal treatment during his 20s that he considered living as a commoner — but stayed on for the Queen, he says in a new interview.

“I spent many years kicking [up] my heels and I didn’t want to grow up,” he tells Newsweek’s Angela Levin.

Harry, now 32, led a hard-partying life and told Levin he came “very close to a breakdown,” the Daily Mail reported Saturday of the interview.

He felt most at home in the Army — but when his assignment in Afghanistan was leaked by a magazine, he had to be withdrawn for security reasons.

“I felt very resentful,” he said. “Being in the Army was the best escape I’ve ever had.”

While in the Army, he said, “I wasn’t a prince. I was just Harry.” But now, he has found satisfaction in a new role, promoting the cause of injured servicemen and women.

Levin and Newsweek were given access to Prince Harry for nearly a year; in the first installment of the interviews the prince said he fell into a depression when, at age 12, his mother, Diana, died.

He also said he doesn’t think anyone in the royal family wants to be king or queen, but instead does so out of duty.