Prince Harry believed his 'beard' was 'shield' for him against world: Here's Why

Prince Harry admitted he developed different defense mechanisms to his constant anxiety.

Emotional stress and depression, that Harry secretly developed after the passing of Princess Diana in 1997, took a toll on his mental health.

However, meeting Meghan Markle in 2016 helped Harry calm his nerves down, despite pressured from the Royal Family. Speaking about obstacles in marrying Meghan, the Duke of Sussex told Tom Bradby: "I don’t think they were ever expecting me to get into a relationship with someone like Meghan, who had, you know, a very successful career. There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning."

Speaking further about his anxiety in the same interview, Harry admitted that he took permission from Queen Elizabeth II to keep his beard on wedding day, which is originally against the Royal tradition.

Harry claimed: "I remembered that William had a beard himself and that granny and other people, the ones to tell – told him that he had to shave it off. Um, the difference for me, if there was a difference, but the difference for me was, as I explained to my grandmother, that this beard I'm still – that I'm still wearing, felt to me at the time like the new Harry. Right? As almost like a shield to my anxiety.

"That was – that was the time of my life when – when I – you know, when I – when I grew my beard. Um, and I think William found it hard that other people told him to shave it off, and yet here I was on my wedding day wearing military uniform, no longer in the military, um, but thinking as though I – believing as though I should shave it off before my wedding day. And I said ‘Well I don’t believe that Meghan’s gonna recognise me if she comes up the aisle and sees me beardless,'" Harry noted.