Harry: I Fell Into Depression During 2019 Break in Canada

Prince Harry says he didn't just walk away from royal life—he crashed out of it. In a new MasterClass videocast on grief, King Charles' younger son describes slipping into a two-week depression during a 2019 break in Canada, taken as tensions with the royal family were rising and he and Meghan were weighing their future roles, reports Reuters. Removed from the pressure of palace life, Harry says his body went from being flooded with adrenaline to hitting an abrupt "crash," leaving him feeling "useless around the house" and unable to function without that constant stress driving him.

It was "something that I'd never ‌experienced before," he noted. "In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings," he added, referring to his army stints in Afghanistan, per the BBC. "But that's not what happened." Harry also revisited the older wound that shaped much of his adulthood: the death of Princess Diana when he was 12. He said he spent years feeling largely "emotionally numb" because he believed he wasn't allowed to feel joy after such a loss. The Canada trip came just weeks before the couple's return to Britain and the announcement that they'd no longer serve as working members of the royal family.