Prince Harry talks losing Princess Diana in new Masterclass on grief
Prince Harry is opening up about the impact of losing his mother, the late Princess Diana, at a young age and his journey with grief in a new MasterClass collaboration.
The Duke of Sussex teamed up with neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor for the MasterClass, released Thursday and called "Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss."
In a video promoting the online course, Harry discusses what it was like for him after his 36-year-old mother died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
"I couldn't remember my mum's laugh. I couldn't remember what she looked like. I felt like I had to be sad in order to prove to her that I missed her," Harry said.
Harry was just 12 years old and his older brother, Prince William, was only 15 years old when their mother died.
"I didn't cry when I was told my mum died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades," he said.
The two brothers have spoken out publicly in the years since about grappling with grief and mental health.
"In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings. But that's not what happened," Harry, now 42, continued in the new video clip, referring to his past two tours of duty in Afghanistan. "I'd spent so long emotionally numb to a large extent, because nobody told me joy was still allowed, that it wasn't betrayal."
Harry also opened up about what he described as a period of depression after he and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, moved with their son, Prince Archie, from the United Kingdom to Canada in late 2019 and stepped down as senior members of the British royal family.
"I experienced this adrenaline crash, something that I'd never experienced before," Harry said.
He continued, "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."
According to MasterClass, O'Connor and Harry will teach subscribers of the online course platform how to transform experiences of loss into growth and resilience.
"What you've lived through isn't just something to survive. It's the foundation for what comes next," Harry said in the video.
O'Connor referred to living with loss in a statement.
"Grief isn't something you move past -- it's something you move through," she said. "This class gives members the science and the tools to do that moving, so they rebuild not back to who they were, but into who they're becoming."
Harry, Meghan, and their two children, Archie and Princess Lilibet, now live in the United Kingdom, having recently moved back to Harry's home country after a six-year stay in California.
The duke said he credits his positive "mental shift" in more recent years to therapy and finding happiness in his family life.
"The biggest factor for me is the energy and the joy and happiness that I get being with my family, especially our kids, and the joy and happiness I get by being on the ground for my work," Harry said.
