Prince Harry has revealed that he fell into depression and felt “useless” soon after Megxit. He also said he now avoids spending more than 10 days away from Meghan and their children.

The Duke of Sussex said life within the Royal Family prevented him from properly processing the death of his mother, Princess Diana, while royal duties also triggered panic attacks.

Harry recalled that simply putting on a shirt and tie for official engagements could leave him feeling 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, describing emotions he carried for “15 or 20 years”.

He said therapy eventually helped him confront the grief. In one striking moment, he sprayed himself with Diana’s perfume, unlocking memories and emotions that had remained buried.

Speaking about grief on the American educational platform MasterClass, Harry said that although he had found happiness with Meghan, he “slipped into depression” after they left royal life and moved away from the UK.

“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 comments about mental health and PTSD came as Meghan returned to the spotlight in London for the first time in years. She wore a £28,000 outfit while meeting Malala Yousafzai for afternoon tea at Claridge’s.

Six years later, the Sussexes are parents to Archie and Lilibet and have returned to the UK. Their children have started school in the Cotswolds.

Harry says he follows a strict “ten-day” rule to protect his happiness.

“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,” Harry said.

“The key to maintaining that balance is spending no more than 10 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 said he did not cry for almost 20 years after his mother’s death. He added that he thinks about Diana “pretty much every night and then most mornings”.

A therapist urged him to find Diana’s perfume after he realised he could no longer remember the sound of her voice or her laugh.

Harry said it had a remarkable effect on him and his grief.

‘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 through,’ he said.

‘Everything I do, everything I put my energy towards, I hope that my mother will be proud of,’ Harry said on the highy-personal episode entitled Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss.

‘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.’

In a conversation with neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, Harry said losing his mother at the age of 12 meant he eventually forgot the sound of Diana’s voice and laugh. 

He added that after marrying Meghan and becoming a father, he often felt guilty about allowing himself to be happy.

Harry said a therapist encouraged him to track down his mother’s favourite perfume in an effort to unlock his grief. He claimed the scent brought back memories and emotions that had long been suppressed.

‘It was like being transported to another time,’ he said. ‘It unlocked everything that had been locked away.

‘Spraying my mother’s scent was almost like knocking bricks out of a wall so I could see through it, and memories and experiences could start seeping back.’

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 said therapy transformed his outlook.

‘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 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.’

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He said he increasingly withdrew from social life during those years.

‘I withdrew from a lot of my friends. I was much more comfortable sitting at home,’ he said.

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.’

The Duchess of Sussex, 45, and the Nobel Peace laureate Malala, 29, were photographed leaving the luxury hotel together in Mayfair before sharing a warm hug goodbye outside the foyer yesterday afternoon.

Meghan was wearing a camel Tove Studio coat worth £1,695, a £630 cashmere sweater in wheat by LA-based label CO and Ralph Lauren’s £1,700 white satin Charmaine trousers. 

She carried a black Chanel handbag worth around £7,000 and wore Yves Saint Laurent shoes priced at about £1,000. Around her neck was Logan Hollowell’s Lovers Duet Diamond and Emerald Chain necklace, valued at £16,200. Her entire outfit came to roughly £28,321.

The pair enjoyed a classic British afternoon tea yesterday with fellow diners saying they ate cucumber sandwiches and scones with jam and clotted cream, with the scones apparently being a favourite of Meghan’s.

Meghan and Malala first joined forces in October 2020 for a virtual discussion on the International Day of the Girl, when they spoke about girls’ education.

Their London meet-up is believed to have been Meghan’s first public appearance in the capital since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September 2022.

Months earlier Meghan and Prince Harry were met by some boos as they arrived at St Paul’s Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

While the Duchess has transited through Heathrow on several occasions since then, she is understood to have avoided central London during the ongoing concerns about her security.

Malala, originally from Pakistan but now living in Birmingham, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for speaking up about young female schooling and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 – the youngest ever recipient at 17 – before going to Oxford University.

Meghan’s focus over the past week has been on the latest As Ever launches but this latest outing suggests she may be preparing to return to philanthropic work, perhaps in the field of girls’ education, now that she is back in the UK.

Meghan and Malala dined in Claridge’s world-famous Foyer and Reading Room, where afternoon tea costs £95 per person. Champagne is available for £30 more but Malala, a Muslim who does not drink alcohol, and Meghan appeared to stick to tea and mineral water.

Set in the hotel’s famed Art Deco interiors and accompanied by live piano music, it is one of Mayfair’s most exclusive and celebrated dining rooms.

Fellow diners discreetly took photographs of the pair as they chatted animatedly over their meal, according to a hotel insider. The women were polite but barely interacted with other attendees as they were surrounded by protection officers. No one knows yet what they were talking about.

The source said they were accompanied by security throughout the visit. Police vehicles were spotted outside Claridge’s during their meet-up, identifiable by their distinctive number plate lights.

The meeting comes amid Harry and Meghan’s ongoing battle to get taxpayer-funded police protection in Britain. 

The couple previously mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge over Harry’s police security while he was visiting from the US. It is understood now that the committee overseeing royal and VIP security, known as Ravec, is to reconsider the level of police protection now the couple and their two children are full-time residents. 

Meghan and Malala’s discussion in 2020 came during the Covid pandemic, with Harry also joining the virtual talk on barriers to education for young women. 

Meghan said on the call: ‘When young girls have access to education, everyone wins, and everyone succeeds. It just opens the door for societal success at the highest level.

‘What I had realised very early on was that when women have a seat at the table, conversations in terms of policy change, conversations in terms of legislation and the dynamics of the community are all shifted. 

‘And when you have to see how you get a woman to embrace her voice, you have to start with where she is a young girl.’ 

Michael Douglas has opened up about how his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, helped put an end to his womanising reputation.

Before meeting Catherine, the Hollywood star was widely regarded as a notorious ladies’ man, with reports of at least five romances with co-stars and numerous other affairs.

That image began to change after Douglas fell for Catherine at first sight while watching her performance in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.

At first, Douglas feared their 25-year age difference would prevent a relationship from developing. But after reading an interview in which Catherine said she preferred older men, he arranged to meet her at the Deauville Film Festival.

Catherine initially joined Douglas for dinner and drinks alongside her Zorro co-star Antonio Banderas and Banderas’ then-wife, Melanie Griffith. Later, she returned to continue the evening with Douglas alone.

After spending the night talking, Douglas—who was then in the process of divorcing Diandra Luker—recalled making an unusually bold declaration. “In a moment of temporary insanity, I blurted out: ‘I’m going to be the father of your children.’”

The prediction eventually came true. However, Catherine first set clear boundaries and made sure Douglas was prepared to remain committed to her.

One of her first decisions was to slow the relationship down, choosing not to sleep with Douglas after their dates.

Douglas said that whenever he offered to take her home, Catherine would explain that a relative or friend nearby could drive her instead.

Completely captivated, Douglas did not immediately recognise the pattern. Eventually, he said, “it finally dawned on me. She wanted to take it slow.”

He nevertheless made every effort to see her, rearranging his schedule and travelling to meet her. Even so, he acknowledged that there was “still nothing physical between us”.

He recalled: ‘I looked forward to seeing her whenever I could. It wasn’t that often, but I drank up every moment. What began as a gradual introduction between two people became the longest courtship I had ever experienced.

“I had always been inclined to move quickly into physical intimacy, but with Catherine, I was willing to give us both as much time as we needed.”

He added: “As Catherine said, I didn’t want her to become just another ex-girlfriend on my list, and she didn’t want Michael Douglas to become just another ex-boyfriend on hers.”

Douglas said the relationship was sustained by what he described as the “little things”, including notes Catherine sent him and the conversations they shared.

He later admitted, however, that he slept with five different women while he was courting Catherine.

The relationship moved forward in June 1999, when Douglas invited Catherine to stay at his holiday home in Mallorca. He promised that she would have a bedroom of her own.

Douglas also invited his friend Pat Riley, president of the Miami Heat, and Riley’s wife of 30 years, Chris, hoping Catherine would see him alongside what he called a “normal, stable couple”.

Michael explained: ‘That, I hoped, would offset my ‘reputation’ that Catherine had mentioned the first night we met. This was important to me. Catherine was very important to me. 

‘And I thought that having my treasured friends around would help Catherine feel comfortable. Turns out, I was right.’

He then revealed that during the visit the pair slept together for the first time and agreed to make things official, although Catherine insisted she would only date him if he was monogamous – prompting Douglas to make ‘five quick calls’.

Michael explained: ‘Just after my marriage, I had been seeing five other women. They knew I was recently separated and in the process of getting a divorce. 

‘I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be nonmonogamous. None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to. 

‘I am sure they were seeing other people, too. That day, I called each one to say I’d met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them. They all took it well.’

Michael and Catherine then contacted their parents to announce they were seeing each other, with Kirk Douglas telling Michael he was a ‘lucky b*****d’.

Catherine’s parents were also on board with the romance, despite being younger than Michael, because they had been to see Kirk’s film Spartacus for their first date. 

Six months after making things official Catherine fell pregnant with their son Dylan, and on New Year’s Eve 1999, despite both suffering from flu at the time, Michael popped the question in Aspen. 

The couple tied the knot at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in November just three months after Dylan was born, in front of a crowd that included Bonnie Tyler, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Hopkins.

Michael’s then-21-year-old son Cameron – from his previous marriage to Diandra – served as the best man.

After the wedding, and a romantic honeymoon in Aspen, the pair made an agreement that only one of them would work at a time to retain a sense of ‘normality’ for their son.

Michael opted to stay home after Catherine was offered her role in Chicago, explaining: ‘While I was nowhere near ready to retire, I had carved out my career already. I had accomplished everything I wanted to do in films and had nothing left to prove. 

‘I was fine taking a stay-at-home role while Catherine’s career continued to blossom. I knew how talented she was, and I knew how successful she would be. It was her time.’

It was a decision that paid off, with Catherine winning an Oscar for the role. The following year she gave birth to daughter Carys. 

They continued their pact until tragedy struck in 2010 when Michael was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer, which he was thankfully able to beat. 

In August 2013, Catherine confirmed that the couple were ‘taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage’.

The separation came two months after Michael blamed developing throat cancer on oral sex. His publicist later retracted the remarks and Michael said he ‘regretted the embarrassment’ they reportedly caused his wife.

Detailing their separation in his memoir, Michael penned: ‘From the second we separated, I never gave up hope that we would reconcile. I love Catherine in a way that I have never loved any other woman.

‘She’s my wife, my best friend, and my life partner. I could never lose her.’

The couple were back together within a year.

Yet when questioned how ‘he won her back’, this week, Michael snapped back to The Sunday Times: ‘What, I won her back? It was a mutual… You know, we had our problems but I love her dearly and, 25 years, you know.

‘Marriage is a lot of work, you know. And so, you know, we’re good. We’re in good shape. It’s all I can say.’

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The pair will celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary next month.

Prior to meeting Catherine, Michael had several flings. 

Yet, he began his memoir by stating he blamed his parents’ divorce and the subsequent trauma on his father Kirk’s many affairs. 

It turned out to be a case of like father, like son, for Michael, who became known for his many dates. 

While working on 1971’s Summertree he fell in love with co-star Brenda Vaccaro. 

‘She was the whole package,’ Michael said of Brenda. ‘She was a talented and respected actress; she was funny; and she had a great sexy voice. The sparks flew with Brenda during the auditions.’

The pair were so passionate about each other they even held a honorary wedding ceremony in front of their friends. 

Yet Michael’s work kept him away for long periods, and Brenda began an affair with fellow actor Don Stroud.  

Upon hearing her ‘sweet talking’ to him on the phone, Michael confronted Brenda and ‘after six years together, I packed up and moved out. I walked out to my car, holding back tears… 

‘I heard through mutual acquaintances that Brenda regretted ending our relationship and especially ending it for Don Stroud.’

Yet Michael forgot about Brenda when he met ‘beautiful and smart’ Diandra Luker at a pre-inaugural party honoring President Jimmy Carter.

Within eight weeks of meeting the pair wed in 1977, with Michael’s father paying for the ceremony, which was hosted in Kirk’s back garden with a reception at the nearby Beverly Wilshire Hotel right after. 

Michael’s friends, including former room-mate Danny DeVito and his wife Rhea, as well as Jann Wenner, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, were all in attendance. 

The couple welcomed son Cameron the following year. 

Yet despite his love for wife Diandra, Michael’s head was turned. 

He explained they had hit a rough patch and were both having affairs when he started work on Romancing The Stone, where he fell for ‘smart, beautiful, and vivacious’ screenwriter Diane Thomas. 

Michael recalled: ‘Our affair was passionate, a lot of fun, and became the foundation of a close friendship but the truth was my marriage was in trouble and neither one of us was happy.’

He claimed that Diandra wanted to ‘change’ who he was, and that his working away was putting a strain on the marriage so they were on a break while he filmed the 1984 movie. 

And Michael made the most of that break, later having another affair on-set, but this time with co-star Kathleen Turner. 

After decades of denying rumours, Michael finally admitted to their relationship, recalling: ‘Kathleen was smart, funny, and sexy with a deep, sultry voice that became her signature. I instantly liked her, and we were immediately attracted to each other.’

He added: ‘It wasn’t a fly-by-night affair; it grew naturally from how closely we were working together, how much pressure we were under, how much we respected and cared for one another, and how attracted we were to each other.

‘Like every other guy in the world at the time, I was knocked sideways by Kathleen.’

Their clandestine romance ended when Diandra flew from LA to Mexico and brought their young son.

Both Michael and Kathleen, who was single but dating real estate mogul Jay Weiss – the man she would later marry – steadfastly denied the affair at the time.

However, Michael asked Kathleen for permission to reveal the tryst before publishing his memoir.

The pair reunited for The Jewel of the Nile the following year – with Diandra sending Kathleen a reminder to stay away from her husband.

They also appeared together in The War of the Roses – where Michael had another affair – but this time with an unknown woman. 

This came to light when he made a phone call that he hadn’t realised was connected to a speaker, in which he’d made plans to meet with a lover. 

Michael then started working on Basic Instinct, and while many assumed something was going on with leading lady Sharon Stone, he was actually having an affair with Jeanne Tripplehorn. 

‘While our intimacy in real life was amazing, it made shooting our lovemaking scenes on camera challenging,’ Michael recalled. ‘In front of the crew, Jeanne was so nervous that she kept laughing uncontrollably.’

The same year that Basic Instinct was released, 1992, Michael entered rehab for drug and alcohol addiction after Diandra caught him being unfaithful again. 

He had called a woman over to his hotel room only for Diandra to catch them in the act, with Michael revealing he thinks she may have hired a private investigator to follow them. 

It was then Diandra issued him an ultimatum: ‘rehab or divorce’. 

Yet despite Michael sobering up, their marriage came to an end in 1995, with Michael celebrating being single by spending time with a number of women.’ 

One of which was Maureen Dowd, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times, with Michael praising her ‘quick wit and big brain’.

While things fizzled out between them romantically, they have remained friends to this day. 

One Helluva Ride is out now.

S