5 Royal Family Members Who Battled Crippling Depression

Princess Alice — The Royal Who Was Locked Away

Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip, suffered a complete nervous breakdown in 1930. She began hearing voices and believed she was being spoken to by Jesus and other religious figures. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and committed to a sanatorium against her will—twice. She was subjected to experimental treatments by none other than Sigmund Freud, who suggested X-raying her ovaries to cure her “madness”. She was separated from her children and missed her son’s wedding. But Alice eventually recovered, converted to Greek Orthodoxy, and spent her later years hiding a Jewish family from the Nazis during World War II. She died in 1969, having survived more than most royals could ever imagine.