Prince Harry Describes Depression After Moving to Canada

Prince Harry experienced a period of depression lasting about two weeks after moving to Canada in 2019, when leaving the United Kingdom gave him distance from a stressful environment. The Duke of Sussex described the effects on his mental health during an online masterclass about grief, discussing both the transition to Canada and the emotional consequences of losing his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Harry said the change in environment triggered an unexpected physical and emotional response. He recalled that his body had become accustomed to stress and adrenaline before the move, leaving him struggling to function when those pressures subsided.

"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," recalled Harry.

He described how the experience affected his ability to manage everyday activities after arriving in Canada.

"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 said.

Harry also detailed the duration and severity of the episode.

"I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks and I felt like I couldn't function without adrenaline," he said.

Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from royal duties before relocating to California. According to the BBC, the couple and their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, recently returned to the United Kingdom after spending six years in the United States. They were thought to be living in the Cotswolds.

In the online discussion, Harry also reflected on the death of his mother when he was 12 and the difficulties he experienced processing his grief in the years that followed. He said he had struggled with emotional numbness and guilt about experiencing happiness after her death.

Harry described how his military experiences became part of his attempt to cope with those feelings.

"In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings," the duke said, referring to his service in Afghanistan as a member of the Army. "But that's not what happened.

He explained that his emotional response to the loss had remained difficult to understand for many years.

"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.

Harry said his grief had become connected to the belief that remaining unhappy demonstrated how much he missed his mother.

"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," he said.

According to the BBC, Harry also discussed how a therapist helped him revisit memories of Diana. After he had gone nearly two decades without crying following her funeral, the therapist suggested that he spray her perfume to help him access his emotions.

Harry said the experience helped him recognize that his mother wanted him to find happiness.

"unlock everything" was the phrase Harry used to describe the therapist's suggestion about the perfume, according to the BBC. He added that the experience allowed him to discover that "she just wanted me to be happy".

Mary-Frances O'Connor, a neuroscientist and University of Arizona professor who appeared in the same online class, explained how the brain responds to the death of someone close. She said grief can involve a continuing expectation that the person will return.

"Your brain doesn't register your loved one as gone - it registers them as lost," O'Connor explained.

She described how this response can persist until the brain adjusts to the person's absence.

"And it will keep searching until you teach it otherwise. We still expect that they're going to walk through the door," she said.

Harry's comments were part of a paid online masterclass focused on coping with grief. According to People magazine, the platform approached him about participating the previous year, and the session was filmed in California over the summer.