The Duke of Sussex has described a two-week period of depression that hit him after arriving in Canada, together with an “adrenaline crash” after escaping a “stressful environment” ahead of the Megxit crisis.
He spoke about his mental health with the neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor in a session titled Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, made for the MasterClass video learning streaming platform.
The exchange, released on Thursday, was a deeply personal one.
Harry said he had left the UK and moved to Canada with Meghan and baby Archie in 2019 to “get some space away from everything”.
He added: “Being in Canada, away from the stressful environment where presumably my body was just pumped full of adrenaline, within two or three days, I experienced this adrenaline crash, something that I’d never experienced before.
“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. I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks and I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”
The Sussexes stayed on Vancouver Island.
Harry and Meghan then quit the working monarchy early in 2020 and eventually moved to the US.
In a dramatic U-turn, the couple returned to live in the UK in August after six years in America.
People magazine reported that MasterClass approached Harry last year about developing a segment on grief.
He filmed the programme in California in the summer, though not at his house in Montecito, the magazine said. Elsewhere in the session, the duke addressed his grief for his mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
He said that for many years he felt he had to be sad to prove he missed her.
About the death of Diana when he was 12, Harry said: “You would think I had the best help in the world. I’m a prince for God’s sake, but I was still grieving and didn’t have any place to put those feelings.”
He described himself as a “student of grief”, and said he went to war twice in the British Army thinking he could “outrun” his feelings.
Harry added: “I’d spent so long emotionally numb, to a large extent, because I felt disloyal and guilty for the possibility of being happy and joyful without her. I felt like I had to be sad and I had to be emotionally numb in order to prove to her that I missed her.”
The duke explained he had forgotten his mother’s laugh.
A therapist suggested spraying her perfume, which helped him to “unlock everything that had been locked previously”.
“The reality is, what I discovered was actually she just wanted me to be happy,” he said.
He also shared how he follows a 10 day-rule of never being away from his wife the Duchess of Sussex and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for longer than 10 days.
An annual MasterClass membership costs between £120 and £228 a year.
Meanwhile, Meghan was spotted in London this week, having afternoon tea with human rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai at the luxury hotel Claridge’s.
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