Prince Harry Reveals the Unusual Beauty Trick He Used to "Unlock" the Feelings He'd Been Bottling Up About Princess Diana
In a new MasterClass video about grief, the Duke of Sussex opened up about how he's processed the loss of his mother.
Prince Harry is taking part in a new MasterClass conversation about grief, and in the video, the Duke of Sussex reveals that he pushed down his feelings so much that he actually forgot certain things about his mother, Princess Diana. Through therapy, he found himself able to reconnect with his memories, and that involved one unexpected tactic.
The Duke of Sussex joins Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, in the MasterClass titled "Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss." Per People, Harry revealed that he “shut down” and didn’t even cry when he found out his mother had died in August 1997.
“The defense mechanism for the mind and the body was to shut down the emotions and shut down the memories,” he said. “Not just the bad memories, the good memories as well. I forgot what my mom sounded like. I forgot her laugh. I couldn’t really visualize what she looked like without looking at a photograph of her.”
(From left) Charles Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles are pictured at Princess Diana's funeral.
Princess Diana holds Prince Harry at Highgrove House in 1986.
One way he was able to reconnect with his mother was through scent. When his therapist told him to spray Princess Diana’s favorite perfume, Prince Harry found himself “unlocking” the feelings he’d been pushing down.
Harry shared “it was like being transported to another time” when he sprayed the scent. He added “it unlocked everything that had been locked previously" and felt "almost like knocking certain bricks through so that I could see through and certain memories and experiences could start seeping through.”
As for the perfume in question, the Duke of Sussex wrote about bringing a bottle of First, his mother's favorite perfume by Van Cleef & Arpels, to a therapy session in his memoir, Spare.
Prince Harry and his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, are pictured visiting Althorp, where Princess Diana is buried, this summer.
In Prince Harry's MasterClass, launched ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, he also admitted that he suppressed his grief so much that he found it difficult to cry about his mother.
"I didn’t cry when I was told my mom died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades,” he said. “I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t. I was a 12-year-old boy with no permission to fall apart and no roadmap for how to heal.”
