Prince Harry opens up about grief: 'I couldn't remember my mother's laugh'

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, has opened up about the impact of losing his mother, the late Princess Diana, at a young age.

The Prince has shared his journey with grief in a new Masterclass collaboration with neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O'Connor titled Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss.

In a video promoting the course, Harry discusses what it was like for him after his 36-year-old mother died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, revealing that he felt "emotionally numb" and spent years trying to cope.

"I couldn't remember my mum's laugh, couldn't remember what she looked like," he confided. "I felt like I had to be sad in order to prove to her that I missed her."

Prince Harry was 12 years old when his mother died. He later served for 10 years with the British Armed Forces, including two deployments to Afghanistan as an air controller and helicopter pilot.

"In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings," he continued. "But that's not what happened. I'd spent so long emotionally numb to a large extent because nobody told me joy was still allowed, that it wasn't betrayal."

The Duke also shared that he "slipped into depression for about two weeks" in 2019 after he moved to Canada with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in their high-profile split with the British Royal Family.

"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," he detailed.

The Duke and Duchess and their children, seven-year-old Archie and five-year-old Lilibet, returned to Britain from California in August, six years after stepping away from their royal duties.