Prince Harry is opening up about balancing his professional commitments alongside his personal life with wife Meghan Markle.
“The biggest factor for me is the energy and the joy and happiness that I get being with my family, especially our kids, and the joy and happiness I get by being on the ground for my work,” Harry, 42, said on the new MasterClass titled, “Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss,” which aired on Thursday, October 8.
Harry and Meghan, 45, tied the knot in 2018 and have since welcomed son Archie and daughter Lilibet in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
“The key to finding the joy and happiness balance is no more than 10 days away from my wife and kids,” Harry said. “This is balancing my work and the purpose behind that as well as being a dad and a husband and the sort of multi-identity elements coming together.”
Elsewhere in the MasterClass, Harry opened up about relocating to Canada in late 2019 with Meghan — and struggling with his mental health — after the couple stepped down from their duties as senior working royals.
“I actually slipped into depression for about two weeks,” he recalled on Thursday. “I felt like I couldn’t function without adrenaline.”
Harry and Meghan later laid roots in California before ultimately moving back to England in August in time for Archie and Lilibet to enroll in a local school.
Since the family’s move back across the pond, Harry’s father, King Charles III, has confirmed that his youngest son and Meghan would not be receiving royal privileges or use their “His or Her Royal Highness” (HRH) styles due to stepping down from their senior duties back in January 2020. (The father-son pair have been estranged, but are working toward reconciliation.)
“The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity,” Charles, 77, wrote in a letter sent to Harry and Meghan’s team, obtained by multiple outlets in September. “In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”
The king continued, “It is well known that, in January 2020, the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of The Sovereign, and are no longer working Members of The Royal Family. This position, distinct from the State and Royal duties undertaken by the working Royal Family, and with the personal latitude it brings the couple in respect of financial independence and protection of their privacy as they would wish, will continue to be fully respected.”
