Prince Harry Reveals Mental Health Battle: ‘Slipped Into Depression’

Prince Harry has opened up about a dark period after stepping away from royal life, revealing that he “slipped into depression” after moving to Canada with Meghan Markle and their son.

The Duke of Sussex, 42, discussed his mental health struggles in a new MasterClass session focused on grief, resilience and the long-term impact of losing his mother, Princess Diana.

Harry said years of royal duties, unresolved grief and constant stress had left him functioning on adrenaline.

“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 said, describing emotions he carried for “15 or 20 years”.

Harry said that after he and Meghan left Britain and moved to Canada, the sudden drop in stress hit him hard.

“We moved to Canada to get some space away from everything and simply think,” he said. “Within two or three days of leaving that stressful environment, I experienced an adrenaline crash unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

“It was as though I needed stress for my brain to function. I became useless around the house. I slipped into depression for about two weeks and felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”

The former working royal said he now recognizes how much of his life had been driven by stress and emotional shutdown.

Harry also reflected on the death of Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when he was 12.

He said he barely cried for years after her death.

“I didn’t cry when I was told my mum died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades.

Prince Harry reflected on his mental health decline after temporarily moving to Canada with wife Meghan Markle and son Archie in 2019: “I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.” https://t.co/TIenSse7Jf https://t.co/d1nAfTru4L

— E! News (@enews) October 8, 2026

“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.

“I’d spent so long emotionally numb because I felt disloyal and guilty at the possibility of being happy without her. I felt I had to stay sad and emotionally shut down to prove I missed her.”

Harry said therapy eventually forced him to confront emotions he had buried for years.

One therapist encouraged him to use his mother’s perfume in an effort to trigger memories he feared he had lost.

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“It was like being transported to another time,” Harry said. “It unlocked everything that had been locked away.

“Spraying my mother’s scent was almost like knocking certain bricks through so that I could see through and certain memories and experiences could start seeping back.”

Harry said therapy also changed how he thought about allowing himself to be happy.

“The reality is that what I discovered was that she just wanted me to be happy.

“That was a huge mental shift for me. It freed me and gave me a completely different outlook on life.”

He also described how joining the military became another outlet for the adrenaline and emotional avoidance that had shaped much of his young adulthood.

“For 15 or 20 years, when people asked, “Are you okay?” my answer was always, “I’m fine”. It was numbness. It was emotional shutdown.

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“Without realising it, adrenaline was driving me. It was the force that led me to join the military at 20. It was the perfect distraction.”

Harry said his deployment to Afghanistan also brought other buried trauma to the surface.

“The things I saw and experienced appeared to trigger other traumas that had been stored within me,” he said.

Today, Harry says his biggest source of stability is his family.

“The biggest factor for me is the energy, joy and happiness I get from being with my family, especially our children, and from being on the ground doing my work.

“The key to maintaining that balance is spending no more than ten days away from my wife and kids.

“It’s about balancing my work and sense of purpose with being a dad and a husband.”

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Harry also said therapy gave him something he had been missing for years.

“Sitting in a room with a complete stranger and having the confidence and trust to open myself up,” he said.

He has since become an outspoken advocate for mental health treatment, including psychedelic-assisted therapy.

“To combine conventional therapy with modern day medicines breaks down those walls and those barriers to be able to open yourself up and go deeper than you would ever dare to go.

“Psychedelic assisted therapy is no longer a fringe idea or thought. It’s really becoming, I think, mainstream.”

The new MasterClass session, released ahead of World Mental Health Day, marks one of Harry’s most personal accounts yet of the depression, grief and emotional numbness he says followed him for years after Diana’s death and eventually surfaced after his exit from royal life.

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