“I didn’t cry when they told me my mom had died. I only cried at her funeral, and after that I didn’t cry again for almost two decades. I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t. I was a 12-year-old boy who wasn’t allowed to fall apart and had no guidance on how to heal” — Prince Harry, speaking about grieving the death of his mother, Princess Diana

Harry was 12 when Diana died. And for the next 20 years, he didn’t cry a single time.

Now, at 42, he talks about it in a new MasterClass on loss and healing. “You’d think I had the best help in the world. I’m a prince, for God’s sake, but I was still grieving and had nowhere to put those feelings”, he says. And he confesses something even harder: he felt disloyal and guilty at the thought of being happy without her. As if he had to be sad and emotionally shut down to prove to her that he missed her.

Over time, he realized something that changed him: all she wanted was to see him happy. “It freed me”, he says.

Sometimes the longest grief isn’t that of the person who cries, but of the person who doesn’t allow themselves to do so. 🤍