Prince Harry is getting candid about what happened after he and Meghan Markle packed up their royal life and fled the United Kingdom back in 2019 — and apparently, the aftermath hit him harder than he expected.
During a new MasterClass session called “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss,” hosted by neuroscientist and academic professor Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, the Duke of Sussex opened up about his mental health after relocating to Canada with Meghan and their son, Prince Archie.
Related: Harry & Meghan Blast Photographers Lurking Around Kids’ School
According to Harry, the intense stress he had been carrying while living in the UK suddenly disappeared when the family got to Canada — and his body had a surprising reaction:
“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.”
The Spare author said the experience made him realize just how dependent he had become on that constant rush of stress:
“I needed stress in order to get the adrenaline to make my brain function because I became useless around the house.”
And then came an even darker realization:
“I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks and I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”
Whoa.
Of course, as we’ve reported, Harry and Meghan began living in Canada with Archie in late 2019 after stepping away from their royal duties. They eventually made their permanent home in Montecito, California, where daughter Lilibet was born in 2021.
And as we’ve been covering, the family has since returned to the UK, amid Harry’s desire to be closer to his father, King Charles III.
Related: Meghan Posts Super-Rare Video Showing Harry & Kids Enjoying UK Life!
But during the MasterClass discussion, Harry revealed that his struggles actually began well before Megxit.
The former working royal recalled experiencing “absolute panic” while carrying out public duties, saying even getting dressed could trigger intense physical symptoms:
“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. And that’s when I realized, okay, there’s something bigger, there’s something else that you need to look into here.”
His biggest anxiety? Sweating in public:
“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. I would feel like I’ve just been in a boxing match.”
Harry also connected his struggles to the grief he experienced following the death of Princess Diana. He said joining the military at 20 became the “perfect distraction” from processing her death:
“For 15, 20 years, when I was being asked, ‘Are you okay?’ My response was, ‘I’m fine.’ It was numbness, emotional shutdown. And without knowing it, adrenaline was pushing me, was driving me.”
Harry further explained that his post-traumatic stress wasn’t directly tied to his military service in Afghanistan, but that the experience “appeared to be a trigger for other traumas that had stored themselves within me.”
Wow. Clearly, there was a LOT more going on beneath the surface than the royal drama ever revealed.
Reactions, y’all? Share ’em (below)…
[Image via MEGA/WENN/Avalon]
