Prince Harry Suffered Depression After Leaving United Kingdom
Prince Harry revealed that he suffered a two-week bout of depression following his departure from the United Kingdom in 2019, according to reports detailing a video interview on the American educational platform MasterClass.
The discussion focused on redefining grief and building resilience to loss. Prince Harry explained that after traveling to Canada with his wife, Meghan Markle, for a six-week holiday to escape intense family and official pressures, his body experienced a sharp drop in adrenaline within two or three days. Having lived in a high-stress environment that constantly fueled his adrenaline, he found himself feeling useless at home and unable to function without that stress, leading directly into a roughly two-week period of clinical depression.
Before stepping back from their working royal roles in early 2020 and eventually settling in the United States, the couple resided on Vancouver Island with their infant son, Archie. In recent months, the couple returned to the UK for a visit alongside Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, following roughly six years of living in California.
Decades of Emotional Numbness and the Memory of Diana
Reflecting on his past, Prince Harry opened up about the profound impact of his mother Princess Diana’s sudden death in a 1997 car crash in Paris, when he was just twelve years old according to regional coverage. He admitted that he did not cry when initially told of her death, shedding tears only at her funeral, and subsequently spent roughly two decades in a state of emotional numbness.
Prince Harry noted that he viewed emotional suppression as a sign of strength during his youth, feeling guilty and believing it would be a betrayal to experience joy or happiness without his mother. That mindset led him to believe he had to remain perpetually sad to prove how much he missed her. He even served twice in the military in Afghanistan, hoping service would help him evade those underlying emotions. Within the royal family, he recalled feeling suffocated by formal duties, ties, and uniforms, which routinely triggered panic attacks.
The Sensory Trigger of Perfume and Ongoing Family Divisions
To help recover memories of his mother—whose voice, laughter, and features he eventually struggled to recall clearly without looking at photographs—Prince Harry turned to therapy. Encouraged by his therapist to use familiar scents in a technique akin to methods used for military veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress, he used Van Cleef & Arpels’ “First”, his mother’s favorite perfume. He described the experience as stepping into another time, breaking through his emotional barriers and allowing long-locked memories to resurface.
Through this therapeutic process, he ultimately concluded that Princess Diana would have wanted him to be happy, liberating him from his lingering guilt. He noted that his philanthropic work mirrors the charitable causes she championed, and he hopes to make her proud.
Despite shared agreement with his older brother, Prince William, on the vital importance of mental health advocacy, the siblings remain estranged following public criticisms and disclosures made by the Duke of Sussex. It remains unaddressed whether future reconciliation between the brothers is possible, or how their ongoing dynamic will affect broader family relations moving forward.
