Prince Harry Admits He ‘Slipped Into Depression’ For Weeks After He and His Family Moved to Canada

Prince Harry is getting candid about his mental health struggles after he, his wife Meghan Markle, and son Archie moved to Canada in 2019.

In his new MasterClass, the Duke of Sussex opened up about the “adrenaline crash” he experienced just days after the international move. He said that before moving, he had lived in a “stressful environment” for years.

“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,” he explained. “Something that I’d never experienced before.”

The royal also felt he needed stress to get the adrenaline that made his brain function. “Because I became useless around the house,” he noted. “I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks, and I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”

Shortly after the move, Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from senior working roles in the royal family. The prince pointed out that the move was only meant to “get some space away from everything just to be able to think”

According to PEOPLE, Prince Harry is participating in the new Masterclass, Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss. He appears alongside neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor as they explore how grief affects the brain and body.

Prince Harry’s mental struggles in Canada occurred after he struggled for years with grief following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years old.

“For 15, 20 years, when I was being asked, ‘Are you okay?’ My response was, ‘I’m fine.’ It was numbness, emotional shutdown,” he recalled. “And without knowing it, adrenaline was pushing me, was driving me.”

He further shared, “It was the driving force of what took me to joining the military at the age of 20. It was the perfect distraction. I couldn’t really think about much else apart from the task at hand.”