Britain’s Prince Harry has spoken about falling into depression during a difficult period in 2019, when he and his wife Meghan were weighing their future within the royal family.

Harry made the disclosure in a videocast about grief, where he also reflected on the lasting emotional impact of losing his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash when he was 12.

The younger son of King Charles said he had spent years feeling emotionally numb following his mother’s death because he had not been told that he was still allowed to experience joy.

“I’d spent so long emotionally numb to a large extent because nobody told me joy was still allowed,” Harry said on the Masterclass videocast, “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss.”

He also recalled the six-week break he and Meghan took in Canada in 2019 as tensions with other members of the royal family were mounting.

Harry said the change of environment had an unexpected effect on him, describing a sharp drop in adrenaline after leaving what he considered a stressful setting.

“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 said.

He said he subsequently struggled to function at home and came to believe that stress and adrenaline had been helping him cope.

“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,” Harry said.

“I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks and I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”

The couple returned to Britain after their break in Canada, and weeks later it was announced that they would step away from their roles as working members of the royal family.

Harry and Meghan subsequently moved to California, where they spent six years before returning to Britain two months ago with their son, Prince Archie, and daughter, Princess Lilibet.

Harry has continued to campaign for greater awareness of mental health issues, an area in which he shares an interest with his brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne.

The brothers have, however, remained largely estranged after Harry repeatedly criticised members of the royal family in interviews and in his memoir. (Arise News)