Prince Harry has revealed he “slipped into depression” following his family’s departure from the United Kingdom in 2019.
The Duke of Sussex, 42, made the admission during a new MasterClass session titled “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss,” hosted by neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor. Harry described experiencing what he called an “adrenaline crash” within days of arriving in Canada with Meghan Markle, 45, and their infant son Prince Archie.
“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 said in the session.
The “Spare” author explained that he realized he “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,” he added.
Harry and Markle began living in Canada with their then-infant son in late 2019, remaining there for several months after announcing they were stepping back from royal duties in January 2020. The family later relocated to Montecito, California, where their daughter Lilibet was born in June 2021. In August, the family of four moved back to the UK.
The duke also reflected on the severe anxiety he experienced while carrying out public duties as a working royal. He described feeling “absolute panic” during that period, with physical symptoms that alarmed him.
“I started to realize that I had become seriously depleted when just putting a simple dress shirt on — the tightening of the collar — literally felt like I was suffocating, and I would be experiencing panic attacks just in the car on the way to work,” he shared.
“And that’s when I realized, okay, there’s something bigger, there’s something else that you need to look into here.”
Harry identified his “biggest anxiety” as the “fear of sweating” during royal engagements. He elaborated on how this manifested during public appearances.
“It was the fear of people seeing me looking disheveled and me not being able to explain to them in one short sentence what’s actually going on,” he explained. “I would feel like I’ve just been in a boxing match.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Harry discussed how joining the military at age 20 served as what he called the “perfect distraction” from processing Princess Diana’s death. Harry was 12 when his mother died in 1997.
“For 15, 20 years, when I was being asked, ‘Are you okay?’ My response was, ‘I’m fine,'” he recalled. “It was numbness, emotional shutdown. And without knowing it, adrenaline was pushing me, was driving me.”
He clarified that his post-traumatic stress was not directly tied to his military tour in Afghanistan, but rather that the combat experience “appeared to be a trigger for other traumas that had stored themselves within me.”
The Sussexes’ return to England this summer came as King Charles III, 77, continues treatment for cancer. The monarch has made clear that the couple are living in the UK as “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests,” not as working royals.
Harry offered an update on his family’s life last month at an Invictus Games charity event in London, remarking that “it’s great to be back on British soil.” He confirmed his two children “are in school” and the family is “happy.”
