Content note: This article discusses grief, depression, panic attacks and mental health. If these subjects feel difficult today, please take care while reading.
Prince Harry is speaking with unusual detail about what grief did to him after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, including memories he says disappeared, years of emotional avoidance, panic attacks during royal life and a period of depression after stepping away from Britain.
The Duke of Sussex shares the experiences in a new 99-minute MasterClass, Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, released October 8 ahead of World Mental Health Day.
Harry appears alongside neuroscientist and grief researcher Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, turning his own experiences into a wider conversation about what happens when grief is postponed rather than processed.
Harry says he forgot Diana’s voice and laugh
Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. Harry was 12.
In the MasterClass, Harry describes responding to his mother’s death by emotionally shutting down. Eventually, he says, some of the most intimate memories of her became difficult to retrieve. He could no longer remember her voice. He could not remember her laugh.
One sensory connection survived particularly powerfully: First by Van Cleef & Arpels, a fragrance Harry has previously identified as one of Diana’s favorites. He has described bringing a bottle into therapy and using the scent to help reconnect with memories that had felt inaccessible.
Royal engagements became a source of panic
Harry also discusses the anxiety he experienced during his years as a working member of the Royal Family. He says there were occasions when he suffered panic attacks while traveling to royal engagements, even as he continued performing the public role expected of him.
He describes years in which activity itself became a coping mechanism. Military service, work and constant movement could distract him from grief without necessarily resolving it.
The quiet after leaving royal life brought another crash
Harry says another significant moment came after he and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, moved to Canada with their son Prince Archie in late 2019. After years of living in what he describes as a highly stressful state, suddenly having space did not immediately feel peaceful.
Instead, Harry says he experienced what he understood as an adrenaline crash and slipped into a period of depression lasting roughly two weeks.
If you or someone you know is struggling with emotional distress or thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Support is free, confidential and available 24/7. You can also visit 988lifeline.org. If there is immediate danger, call 911.
Therapy gave Harry permission to grieve
Harry has spoken publicly about therapy before, but in the new class he places it specifically within his relationship with grief. Rather than thinking solely about how Diana died, he eventually began confronting what it meant to have lost her and what she would have wanted for him.
Therapy ultimately gave him what he describes as permission to grieve.
Diana is still part of Harry’s decision-making
More than 29 years after Diana’s death, Harry says he continues to feel connected to her. He sometimes considers what advice she might give him and speaks of trying to continue elements of her humanitarian legacy through his own work.
Harry has a 10-day rule for his own family
The class also offers a glimpse into Harry’s life with Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Harry says he now tries not to spend more than 10 days away from his family.
How much does Prince Harry’s MasterClass cost?
Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss runs for 1 hour and 39 minutes. The class is not currently sold separately. It is included with a MasterClass membership.
MasterClass currently advertises plans beginning at $10 per month when billed annually, making the entry-level cost effectively $120 for a year of access.
A different kind of Harry interview
Harry has spent years discussing his mother, the Royal Family and his mental health in interviews, documentaries and his memoir Spare. What makes this conversation somewhat different is its focus.
Spare
Harry’s memoir covers his childhood, the loss of Princess Diana, military service, royal life, marriage and his decision to step back from official duties.
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See Spare on AmazonThe question is less about what happened between Harry and the Royal Family and more about what happened inside Harry after Diana died.
For all the public arguments that have surrounded the Duke of Sussex, the central experience he describes is an extraordinarily private one: a 12-year-old boy losing his mother, learning how not to feel it, and eventually discovering that not feeling it came with consequences of its own.
What do you think? Has grief ever surprised you by returning years after you thought you had moved through it? Join the conversation below.
