Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Get Personal in N.Y.C. on World Mental Health Day

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are stepping out together on World Mental Health Day.

On Oct. 10, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended Project Healthy Minds’ annual World Mental Health Day Festival in New York City. The event brings together leaders across industries to discuss the future of mental health, and the couple’s Archewell Foundation is hosting three panels at the festival on Friday.

While Meghan sat in the front row, Harry took to the stage to introduce the first session, “Thriving or Surviving: How Are Young People Doing in the Digital Age?” telling the crowd, “Today is more than just about conversation — it’s about community.”

“The past five years have taught us painfully that crises rarely arrive in isolation,” he continued. “The global pandemic stripped away the ordinary scaffolding of life and brought a measurable surge in anxiety, depression and loss of connection.”

“Our digital world has fundamentally changed how we experience reality,” he said. “Young people exposed to relentless comparison, harassment, misinformation and an attention economy designed to keep us scrawling at the expense of sleep and real human contact.”

“Young people learning to navigate a digital world that wasn’t designed with their wellbeing. This is what we’ve discovered,” he added. “Maintaining good mental health isn’t just an individual challenge, it is a community responsibility. Approach this way, everybody wins. That’s what today is about.”

As Meghan took the stage to introduce the second panel, “How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an International Mental Health Criss, And How We Can Reverse It,” featuring Katie Couric as moderator, the Duchess of Sussex told the crowd: “For this next panel we’re going to turn to one of the most urgent questions facing families today: what’s happening to childhood and how and what do we do to allow our children to just be children.”

She also spoke of the Archewell Foundation’s The Parents Network, which supports parents impacted by social media harm: “Three years ago we had met with families whose worlds had been absolutely shattered. Parents who had lost children to social media driven suicide. Others who had lost so many of their children to struggles with depression, anxiety, self-harm all inflicted by online harms.”

“What we learned in these moments is that these parents, they didn’t just need therapy, they need the other parents who understood their very specific grief,” she continued. “And when they came together, they weren’t just sharing stories, they’re creating a movement. They turned their grief into advocacy, and when they let love fuel their fight for change, we saw tremendous impact.”

Following the panels, Meghan and Harry gave hugs and chatted to those around them before leaving.

Prince Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, attended the festival after a rare glam night out at Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Gala in N.Y.C. on Oct. 9, where they walked the red carpet and delivered an emotional speech while accepting the nonprofit’s Humanitarians of the Year Award, honoring their work to build a safer online world and promote mental wellbeing globally.

Harry’s remarks come one day after his sister-in-law Kate Middleton, shared a similar message about disconnection in the digital age. In a new essay co-written with Harvard University professor Robert Waldinger — titled The Power of Human Connection in a Distracted World — Kate, 43, reflected on how technology is eroding our ability to truly connect.

“When we check our phones during conversations, scroll through social media during family dinners, or respond to emails while playing with our children, we’re not just being distracted; we are withdrawing the basic form of love that human connection requires,” she said.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have made mental health and wellbeing a focus of the work of the charitable Archewell Foundation that they launched in 2020, and have previously teamed up with Project Healthy Minds, a Millennial and Gen Z-driven mental health nonprofit. 

On World Mental Health Day in October 2023, Prince Harry and Meghan attended Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival and launched The Parent’s Network initiative from their Archewell Foundation at the event.

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The Parent’s Network is a support for parents and caregivers whose children have been affected by social media harms, including families who have lost a child or whose children have experienced near-fatal harm.

The network has expanded across the U.S., U.K. and Canada since its launch two years ago, taking it international, and its somber Lost Screen Memorial is on display at the World Mental Health Day Festival today.