Prince Harry may have received more than $100,000, along with a share of subscription income, for his 99-minute MasterClass on grief.
In the online seminar, the Duke of Sussex gave an emotional account of losing his mother, Princess Diana, and discussed his battles with depression and feelings of uselessness after Megxit.
A source close to Harry urged people to watch the class before judging it, telling the Daily Mail that he should not face prolonged criticism for “speaking from the heart”.
Harry’s spokesman confirmed that he was paid by MasterClass to appear in Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, but declined to provide further details. The San Francisco-based platform features celebrities and leading figures who teach pre-recorded classes on their specialist subjects.
According to Forbes, MasterClass instructors can receive an upfront fee of at least $100,000 (£75,500), as well as 30 per cent of subscription revenue generated by their courses.
Harry appears as a co-instructor alongside American neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor. Together, they aim to help viewers “discover new ways to process grief and loss so you can find your way back to you”.
The full lecture is available through a MasterClass subscription costing between £10 and £19 a month. The technology company is valued at $2.75 billion.
Royal reporter Tom Sykes said a source close to Harry argued that nobody had the right to judge how he had coped with losing his mother at the age of 12. The source described Harry’s conversation with Dr O’Connor as an honest discussion of his life and family.
Prince Harry has spoken about the mental health problems he experienced after Megxit and the grief he carried following Diana’s death.
Meghan Markle made her first public appearance in the UK for four years when she met Malala Yousafzai for afternoon tea at Claridge’s.
Previous MasterClass instructors have included Martin Scorsese, Gordon Ramsay, Serena Williams and Hillary Clinton.
During the interview, Harry said he became depressed and felt “useless” soon after Megxit. He also said he now avoids spending more than ten days away from Meghan and their children.
In a video released yesterday, the Duke claimed that life inside the Royal Family prevented him from properly grieving for Diana. He said his official responsibilities also triggered panic attacks.
Harry, 42, said putting on a shirt and tie for royal engagements often made him feel as though he were being strangled or suffocated.
“You would think I had the best help in the world. I’m a prince, for God’s sake, but I was still grieving and didn’t have any place to put those feelings,” he said, adding that he carried those emotions for “15 or 20 years”.
Harry said therapy eventually helped him. He also recalled the striking moment when spraying himself with Diana’s perfume unlocked memories and emotions he had kept buried.
In the MasterClass video, Harry said he had found happiness with Meghan but “slipped into depression” after they left royal life and Britain.
“We moved to Canada to get some space away from everything and simply think,” he said. “Within two or three days of leaving that stressful environment, I experienced an adrenaline crash unlike anything I’d ever felt before.”
“It was as though I needed stress for my brain to function. I became useless around the house. I slipped into depression for about two weeks and felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”
His candid discussion of mental health and PTSD came as Meghan returned to the public eye for the first time in years, wearing a £28,000 outfit for afternoon tea with Malala Yousafzai in London.
Six years on from Megxit, the Sussexes are parents to two children, Archie and Lilibet, and are back in the UK again. The children have started school in the Cotswolds.
And Harry now says that he follows a strict ‘ten-day’ rule to protect his happiness.
He said: ‘The biggest factor for me is the energy, joy and happiness I get from being with my family, especially our children, and from being on the ground doing my work.
‘The key to maintaining that balance is spending no more than ten days away from my wife and kids.
‘It’s about balancing my work and sense of purpose with being a dad and a husband.’
Harry revealed he did not cry for almost 20 years after his mother’s death and thinks of her ‘pretty much every night and then most mornings’.
A therapist encouraged him to find Diana’s perfume in an effort to unlock his grief after he had forgotten what her voice and laugh sounded like.
The Duke said doing this had a remarkable effect on him and his grief, claiming the scent brought back memories and emotions that had long been suppressed.
‘It was like being transported to another time,’ Harry said. ‘It unlocked everything that had been locked away.
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‘Spraying my mother’s scent was almost like knocking certain bricks through so that I could see through and certain memories and experiences could start seeping back.’
Harry posed for a trailer promoting the new interview where he discusses his history of grief and mental health
The Duke of Sussex spoke to neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday
Harry said a therapist encouraged him to spray himself with Diana’s perfume, which he said brought memories and emotions flooding back
In the very personal MasterClass episode Harry also said: ‘Everything I do, everything I put my energy towards, I hope that my mother will be proud of.
‘Trying to continue and protect her legacy, what I didn’t realise was that the work I was drawn to was so similar to the work she was doing.’
Speaking to Dr O’Connor ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, Harry added that after marrying Meghan and becoming a father, he often felt guilty about allowing himself to be happy.
The interview comes weeks after the publication of his uncle’s memoir about Diana, which reignited debate about her legacy and included claims that angered the King.
Earl Spencer claimed in one angry phone call Charles told him Diana would soon be forgotten after she died in Paris in 1997.
Reflecting on his mother’s death, Harry said: ‘I didn’t cry when I was told my mum died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades.
‘I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t. It was a 12-year-old boy with no permission to fall apart and no roadmap for how to heal.
‘I’d spent so long emotionally numb because I felt disloyal and guilty at the possibility of being happy without her. I felt I had to stay sad and emotionally shut down to prove I missed her.’
Harry has explained how therapy transformed his outlook, saying: ‘The reality is that what I discovered was that she just wanted me to be happy.
‘That was a huge mental shift for me. It freed me and gave me a completely different outlook on life.’
Harry also said that joining the Army gave him a sense of purpose.
‘For 15 or 20 years, when people asked, “Are you okay?” my answer was always, “I’m fine.” It was numbness. It was emotional shutdown.
‘Without realising it, adrenaline was driving me. It was the force that led me to join the military at 20. It was the perfect distraction.’
The Duke said he increasingly withdrew from his friends and social life during those years, explaining how he ‘was much more comfortable sitting at home’.
Harry added that he struggled to find help at first.
‘Unfortunately, a number of general practitioners weren’t equipped to help me. It was a case of receiving advice or being offered a pill.
‘I was completely against taking medication. I followed the advice but it wasn’t making any difference, so I kept searching for something that would work.’
He described his deployment to Afghanistan as life-changing.
‘The things I saw and experienced appeared to trigger other traumas that had been stored within me,’ he said.
Harry said therapy eventually gave him the ‘permission to grieve’.
‘Sitting in a room with a complete stranger and having the confidence and trust to open myself up,’ he said.
The Duke, who in his book Spare admitted taking a number of illegal drugs in his life, praised psychedelic-assisted therapy – a type of treatment that has split doctors.
Magic mushrooms, MDMA and ketamine are used to change the brain rather than treat symptoms of depression and PTSD with common anti-depressants.
He said: ‘To combine conventional therapy with modern day medicines breaks down those walls and those barriers to be able to open yourself up and go deeper than you would ever dare to go.
‘Psychedelic assisted therapy is no longer a fringe idea or thought. It’s really becoming, I think, mainstream.’