Two-Week Depression Followed Harry's 2019 Move to Canada

Prince Harry says he "slipped into depression for about two weeks" after relocating to Canada in 2019, a stretch he attributes to his body crashing from years of adrenaline tied to royal duty in the UK, according to BBC News. The Duke of Sussex made the comments as part of a paid-for online masterclass on grief, months after he and the Duchess of Sussex returned to the UK with their two children following six years in the United States.

What triggered the 'adrenaline crash' Harry describes?

Harry told the session that the shift away from his prior routine produced a physical reaction within days of arriving in Canada.

"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," Harry said, according to the BBC. "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. I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks and I felt like I couldn't function without adrenaline."

The mechanism he describes is a drop in the stress response after a prolonged period of sustained exposure to it — a crash he says left him unable to function around the house for roughly two weeks.

How does a neuroscientist explain that reaction?

Mary-Frances O'Connor, a University of Arizona neuroscientist who also took part in the recorded session, began to walk through the physiological basis for the reaction, telling participants, "Your brain doesn't," according to the BBC's reporting. The outlet's excerpt of her explanation ends there, so the full mechanism she describes is not available in the published material.

Why did Harry and Meghan leave the UK in 2019?

Harry said he left Britain originally "to get some space," ahead of the couple's later move to the United States. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties and relocated to California. Last month, the BBC reported, they announced they were returning to the UK with their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, after six years in the US. They are now thought to be living in the Cotswolds.

In the same session, Harry said he keeps a personal rule never to be away from his family for more than 10 days.

How did Princess Diana's death shape his grief, by his own account?

Harry, who was 12 when his mother died, said he struggled for years to process the loss. "In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings," he said, referring to his two deployments to Afghanistan with the British Army. "But that's not what happened."

He described years of suppressed emotion tied to guilt over moving on from the grief. "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," he said. "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."

According to news outlets cited by the BBC, Harry cried at his mother's funeral but did not cry again for nearly two decades. He said a therapist later suggested he spray her perfume to "unlock everything," a step that let him realize, in his words, that "she just wanted me to be happy."

What is the masterclass where Harry made these remarks?

The comments were recorded for a paid-for online video learning platform built around a session on grief, featuring Harry alongside O'Connor, the University of Arizona professor and neuroscientist. Harry and his brother, the Prince of Wales, have both spoken previously about their mental health in the years after their mother's death, and both back mental health charities, the BBC noted.

Harry's remarks add detail to an account he has given in prior interviews about his departure from royal life, but this is the first time he has specifically described a two-week depressive episode tied to a drop in sustained physiological stress after leaving the UK for Canada ahead of the family's move to the US.

The full text of O'Connor's explanation of the underlying brain mechanism was not included in the BBC's published report.