Prince Harry, Advocating for Men’s Mental Health, Arrives in NYC for Press Blitz

Nine years ago, Prince Harry launched his pivot to mental health advocacy with a message to men: it’s #oktosay that you’re struggling. The hashtag was a part of a broader program called Heads Together, where he joined with Prince William and Kate Middleton to encourage Brits—particularly male Brits—to break the stigma around talking about their feelings.

Nearly a decade later, Harry is back in New York City with his wife, Meghan Markle, for a three-day trip coinciding with World Mental Health Day. Their visit will highlight the work they’ve put into addressing this issue from a variety of angles, from social media awareness to veteran’s advocacy and emotional education. On Thursday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will accept the Humanitarian of the Year Award at Project Healthy Minds’s annual gala. On Friday, their Archewell Foundation will sponsor panels about the mental health impacts of technology and developing issues in AI safety at the charity’s World Mental Health Day summit.

And on Wednesday night, Harry sat down for a conversation hosted by the Movember Institute for Men’s Health at the Australian American Association, where he discussed his roots in getting men to talk about their feelings. Harry spoke with Movember’s Zac Seidler and Calvin Abbasi of the Andron Project on the panel, moderated by journalist Brooke Baldwin

During the event, Harry explained how speaking with other veterans after he finished his service in the British army helped motivate his mental health advocacy. “Sitting down with them, I realized the silence is killing people,” he said. “Stamping out the stigma globally—we’ve come a long way.” Still, he noted that “access to therapy is still a massive problem.”

Before this trip, Meghan and Harry were last in New York City this past April, when Meghan spoke at the Time 100 Summit about her Netflix show and lifestyle brand As Ever. Later in the day, the duke and duchess hosted an event for their Archewell Parents’ Network, which organizes support groups for families who have lost children to harms encountered online.

In an interview with Vanity Fair after the Archewell event, Harry said that learning about children who have died after buying drugs online or experienced depression after online bullying made him redouble his commitment to changing social media and raising awareness about mental health. “Clearly, not enough is not being done,” he said. “Some of the stories here are truly harrowing…You think you’ve heard the worst of it until nights like this.”

Friday’s summit will give Meghan and Harry a chance to reunite some of the luminaries they have collaborated with in the years since they left their royal roles in 2020. The couple is set to be in the audience as broadcaster Katie Couric and Jonathan Haidt, the bestselling author of The Anxious Generation, participate in a panel called “How The Great Rewiring Of Childhood Caused An International Mental Health Crisis, And How We Can Reverse It.” In 2021, Harry served on an Aspen Institute research committee with Couric, and in 2024, the couple cited Haidt’s book as a major inspiration for their recent social media advocacy.