Prince Harry has opened up about how a familiar perfume helped him reconnect with memories of his late mother, Princess Diana, after years of struggling with his grief.

In his new MasterClass, Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss, which premiered on October 8, the Duke of Sussex, 42, revealed that suppressing his emotions after Diana’s death left him struggling to remember even the sound of her voice.

Harry was just 12 years old when Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Over the years, he found it difficult to process the loss and felt disconnected from some of his most precious memories of her.

“I couldn’t remember my mom’s love. I couldn’t remember what she looked like. I felt like I had to be sad in order to prove to her that I missed her,” Harry explained in the MasterClass.

With help from his therapist, he eventually discovered an unexpected way to reconnect with those memories: scent.

Harry said he had previously learned about using familiar smells to help military veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. He tried a similar technique with First, a floral fragrance by Van Cleef & Arpels that Diana loved. He had also mentioned the perfume in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

The scent brought back memories that Harry felt he had shut away for years.

“It was like being transported to another time,” he recalled.

Harry also reflected on how difficult it was to deal with Diana’s death while watching strangers openly express their sadness. At the time, he struggled to understand why others were crying when he found it hard to show his own emotions.

For years, he even held on to the hope that his mother might still be alive and would one day return for him and his older brother, Prince William.

The MasterClass also features neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, who explains how smell is closely linked to the parts of the brain involved in memory and emotion. This connection can help explain why a familiar fragrance may bring back powerful memories of a person or a moment from the past.

Beyond remembering his mother, Harry discussed another difficult part of his grieving process: feeling guilty about being happy without her.

Over time, he began to see things differently. He came to believe that Diana would have wanted him to find happiness rather than feel that he had to remain sad to prove how much he loved and missed her.

His reflections offer a personal look at how grief can change over time and how even something as simple as a familiar scent can help bring long-buried memories back to the surface.