Prince Harry discusses grief, panic attacks and depression in MasterClass with neuroscientist

Left · 1Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, appears in a new MasterClass offering, Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, with neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O'Connor, which debuted on Thursday 8 October. 1 Left · 1The Daily Mirror says the conversation was released ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday and was filmed in California before Harry's move back to Britain. 2 Left · 2Harry says he did not cry when told his mother, Princess Diana, had died when he was 12, only at her burial and then not again for nearly two decades; he says he was convinced this was strength, but it was not. 1 2

Left · 1He says he spent years emotionally numb because he felt disloyal and guilty about being happy without her, and felt he had to be sad to prove he missed her. 2 Left · 1He recalls that days after her death, he and his brother, Prince William, greeted thousands of people laying flowers outside Kensington Palace and felt like intermediaries for their grief, with guilt at being unable to show the same emotion. 1 Left · 1Harry says he joined the British Army at 20 partly because adrenaline was a distraction, and that after his second Afghanistan tour in 2013 'everything caught up with me', with his post-traumatic stress tied to other traumas rather than to Afghanistan. 1

Left · 2He describes panic attacks, saying the tightening of a dress-shirt collar felt like suffocating and that he had panic attacks in the car on the way to work; he adds that public engagements brought 'absolute panic', including fear of sweating and of cameras. 1 2 Left · 1After he, Meghan Markle and their son Archie moved to Canada in late 2019, he says he had an 'adrenaline crash' within two or three days and 'slipped into depression for about two weeks', feeling he could not function without adrenaline; the couple announced they were stepping back from royal duties in early 2020. 1 Left · 2Harry says he thinks of Diana 'pretty much every night and most mornings', keeps a photograph of her, and used her perfume to unlock memories of her. 2 1

Left · 1On family life, he says the key to balancing joy and work is spending no more than 10 days away from his wife and children; The Hollywood Reporter notes the family recently relocated to England after several years in Montecito, California. 1 Left · 1He ends by saying he would tell his 12-year-old self that everything is going to be OK. 1