Prince Harry ‘slipped into depression for two weeks’ after leaving UK
Updated . First published at
Prince Harry has revealed he “slipped into depression” for two weeks after leaving the UK and moving to Canada.
In conversation with a neuroscientist for video learning platform MasterClass, the Duke of Sussex reflected on the “adrenaline crash” he experienced when he, wife Meghan and baby son Archie left the UK in late 2019 to “get some space away”.
Prince Harry, pictured in Canada with son Archie in 2019, says he “slipped into depression” after leaving the UK for Vancouver Island ahead of his ‘royal exit’. Instagram/Sussex Royal
“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,” he told Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor in the online session.
"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."
Harry and Meghan pictured during an appearance at Canada House in London, hours before announcing their intention to step down as working royals. AP/AAP
The Sussexes spent six weeks on Vancouver Island over Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2019, initially as a break from royal duties and public life.
However, in early January 2020, they announced their intention to step down as working royals and move abroad.
They ultimately settled in Montecito, California, before returning to the UK this year in a surprise move.
During the video session, titled ‘Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss’, Harry also spoke of the trauma of his mother Princess Diana’s death in 1997 when he was 12.
“I didn’t cry when I was told my mum died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades,” he recalled.
The Duke of Sussex reflected on his experiences in a MasterClass video session on ‘redefining grief’. YouTube/MasterClass
He reflected on his trauma response to Princess Diana’s death, saying, “I forgot what my mum sounded like. I forgot her laugh.” Getty
“I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t. It was a 12-year-old boy with no permission to fall apart and no roadmap for how to heal.
“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.”
Harry said his body’s defence mechanism was shutting down his emotions and memories, including the positive ones.
“I forgot what my mum sounded like. I forgot her laugh. I couldn’t really visualise what she looked like without looking at a photograph of her,” he said.
He spent years “emotionally numb” before he began processing his loss, admitting the thought of being happy without her made him feel “disloyal and guilty”.
“In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings,” Harry continued, referring to his time serving with the army in Afghanistan.
“But that’s not what happened. 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.”
Harry said a therapist’s suggestion years later that he use his mother’s perfume as a way to ‘unlock’ his memories of her proved life-changing.
“[S]praying my mother’s scent was almost like knocking certain bricks through so that I could see through,” he said.
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