Prince Harry may have received an upfront fee of at least $100,000, along with a share of subscription income, for his 99-minute MasterClass on grief.

In the online session, the Duke of Sussex gave an intensely personal account of losing his mother, Princess Diana, and discussed his battles with depression and feelings of worthlessness after stepping down as a working royal.

A source close to Harry told Our News Outlet that viewers should watch the class before forming an opinion, urging critics not to condemn him for “speaking from the heart.”

Harry’s spokesman confirmed that the prince was paid by MasterClass to appear in Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss. The San Francisco-based platform enlists celebrities and leading figures to teach pre-recorded lessons on their expertise, but the spokesman declined to provide further details.

According to Forbes, MasterClass instructors typically receive an upfront payment of at least $100,000 (£75,500), as well as 30 per cent of subscription revenue generated by their classes.

Harry appears as a co-instructor alongside American neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor. Together, they aim to help viewers “discover new ways to process grief and loss so you can find your way back to you.”

The full lecture is available through a MasterClass subscription costing between £10 and £19 a month. The technology company is valued at approximately $2.75 billion.

According to royal reporter Tom Sykes, a source close to Harry said no one had the right to judge how he processed the loss of his mother at the age of 12. The source described the interview with Dr O’Connor as Harry speaking openly “from the heart” about his life and family.

Previous MasterClass instructors have included filmmaker Martin Scorsese, chef Gordon Ramsay, tennis champion Serena Williams and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During the interview, Harry said he felt depressed and “useless” after leaving royal life. He also said he now avoids spending more than 10 days away from Meghan and their children.

In the newly released video, the Duke of Sussex said life inside the Royal Family prevented him from properly grieving Diana’s death. He added that his official duties sometimes triggered panic attacks.

Harry, 42, recalled that getting dressed for royal engagements in a shirt and tie often made him feel as if 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.”

Harry said therapy eventually helped him confront those emotions. He also described a striking moment when spraying himself with Diana’s perfume unlocked memories and feelings he had kept buried.

Speaking in the MasterClass video, Harry said that although he had found happiness with Meghan, he “slipped into depression” after the couple left royal duties and moved away from Britain.

“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.”

Harry’s candid discussion of his mental health and PTSD came as Meghan returned to the public spotlight after several years away, wearing a £28,000 outfit for afternoon tea with Malala Yousafzai in London.

Six years on from Megxit, the Sussexes are parents to two children, Archie and Lilibet, and are back in the UK again. The children have started school in the Cotswolds.

And Harry now says that he follows a strict ‘ten-day’ rule to protect his happiness. 

He said: ‘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.

‘The key to maintaining that balance is spending no more than ten 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 revealed he did not cry for almost 20 years after his mother’s death and thinks of her ‘pretty much every night and then most mornings’.

A therapist encouraged him to find Diana’s perfume in an effort to unlock his grief after he had forgotten what her voice and laugh sounded like.

The Duke said doing this had a remarkable effect on him and his grief, claiming the scent brought back memories and emotions that had long been suppressed.

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

‘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 back.’

In the very personal MasterClass episode Harry also said: ‘Everything I do, everything I put my energy towards, I hope that my mother will be proud of.

‘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.’

Speaking to Dr O’Connor ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, Harry added that after marrying Meghan and becoming a father, he often felt guilty about allowing himself to be happy.

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 has explained how therapy transformed his outlook, saying: ‘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 that 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.’

The Duke said he increasingly withdrew from his friends and social life during those years, explaining how he ‘was much more comfortable sitting at home’.

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.’