Prince Harry has revealed he experienced a two-week period of depression after moving to Canada in late 2019.
He discusses the episode in MasterClass’ Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, released on October 8.
The programme pairs him with neuroscientist and grief expert Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor for a deeply personal conversation.
The disclosure adds new personal context to Prince Harry’s break from royal life alongside Meghan Markle in 2020. Harry and Meghan moved to Canada with their baby son, Archie, during an extended break in late 2019.
Just weeks later, in January 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their plans to step away from senior royal duties.
Prince Harry reveals he slipped into depression in Canada
As reported by PEOPLE, Harry said the move to Canada was intended to give the family space and time to think. Within two or three days, he experienced what he described as an “adrenaline crash”.
“I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks,” Harry said. “I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”
He said he struggled with household tasks and felt unable to function without adrenaline. This came shortly before Harry and Meghan announced plans to step back as senior working royals.
Harry said: “It was as if I needed stress in order to get the adrenaline to make my brain function because I became useless around the house.”
After returning from a tour in Afghanistan in 2013, Harry said he was suffering with his work. He said that putting on a dress shirt could feel “suffocating”, while car journeys to work brought panic attacks.
Prince Harry opens up about Princess Diana grief
In the discussion, Harry also opened up about his mother Princess Diana’s death.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when Harry was 12. Harry said he remained “emotionally numb” for years and struggled to accept happiness without his mother.
According to PEOPLE, he said he felt “disloyal and guilty for the possibility of being happy and joyful without her”.
That grief, he explained, made sadness feel like proof that he still missed Diana. He also said he cried at her burial, then not again over her death for nearly two decades.
“I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t,” he said.
He also forgot Diana’s voice and laugh, and struggled to picture her without a photograph. Later, using her perfume helped him reconnect with memories, he said.
His outlook eventually changed when he concluded Diana would have wanted him to be happy.
Prince Harry explains his 10-day family rule
The conversation also covers the balance between Harry’s family life and work. Harry said he finds happiness both with his family and while carrying out his work.
His practical limit is no more than 10 days away from his wife and children. He framed the rule as a way of balancing work, fatherhood and marriage.
Read more: Reason Prince Harry ‘could face pressure’ to help Meghan settle into the UK
The class was released ahead of World Mental Health Day and supports two bereavement charities.
They are US organisation Comfort Zone Camp and UK charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers.
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