Prince Harry Says He ‘Slipped Into Depression’ Within Days of Leaving the Royal Life Behind
Harry expressed that his body and mind were facing extreme fatigue after spending 15-20 years in a toxic environment.
Prince Harry has never hidden how hard the years after the military were. In Spare, he wrote about grief, anxiety, and the therapy that followed. Now he is speaking about it again. During a recent virtual address to NATO’s Military Committee, he conveyed a heartfelt message about feeling lost and lacking a sense of purpose after leaving his military career. He has also sat down with neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor to talk about mental health. He spoke about grief and about where his mind was when he stepped back from royal life in 2020.
Harry recalled feeling an 'adrenaline crash' right after arriving in Canada in 2019 along with Meghan Markle and their son Prince Archie. He expressed that his body and mind were facing extreme fatigue after spending 15-20 years in a toxic environment related to his connection with the royal family. "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 highlighted during the Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss MasterClass.
"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," he added. "I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks, and I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline." The Sussexes had famously spent the Christmas that year in Canada. In January 2020, they announced plans to step back from their roles as senior working members of the British royal family.
The Duke described this tumultuous phase as "to get some space away from everything just to be able to think." Comparing his mental shutdown in Canada with his mother's untimely demise, Harry stated that during his years of emotional numbness following Princess Diana's tragic death in 1997, he responded with "I'm fine" when asked about his well-being.
He went on to describe how adrenaline fueled him, leading to his enlistment in the military at age 20, which served as a distraction from his grief. He recalled going into traumatic panic attacks triggered by unaddressed grief during his military years. The main focus of his MasterClass lesson was how he coped with his mother's death and has since found a purpose to continue her legacy through charitable works. "Everything I do, everything I put my energy towards, I hope that my mother will be proud about it," he said.
According to PEOPLE! MasterClass sent Harry an invitation last year to create a class focused on grief, which the Duke filmed in California this summer, though not at his Montecito home. The conversation has been released before World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10, and supports two bereavement charities: Comfort Zone Camp and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, which Harry has long championed.
