Prince Harry appears to have taken a further thinly-veiled dig at his family by claiming he did not have a ‘support network’ when he returned from Afghanistan. The Duke of Sussex made the claim in his new Heart of Invictus series which has launched on Netflix.
The Prince also said that he was not aware of the trauma he still had from his mother Princess Diana dying in Paris in August 1997 when he was aged just 12. Harry said that when he returned from war in 2008, the “biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help”, adding: “I didn’t have that support structure, that network or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me.”
He also told the show: “Unfortunately like most of us the first time you consider therapy is when you are lying on the floor in the foetal position probably wishing you had dealt with some of this stuff previously. And that’s what I really want to change.”
As the Sussexes’ latest project in their £80million deal with Netflix was released on Wednesday, Harry also described himself as a father-of-two, dog owner and husband. At the start, the Duke of Sussex was asked by an interviewer: “What’s your name?”, and replied: “My name’s Harry.” The interviewer then said: “What do you do, Harry?”
Harry said: “What do I do? On any given day? I’m a dad of two under three year olds, got a couple of dogs, husband, I’m founding patron of Invictus Games Foundation. There’s lots of hats that one wears, but I believe today is all about Invictus.”
Also in the documentary, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were seen in a private moment together before a speech at the Salute to Freedom Gala in New York City in November 2021, and the Duke was heard confiding in the Duchess about his nerves. Harry was heard saying: “We haven’t done this for a while.” Meghan replied: “I know.” Harry added: “My heart like digidigadigadiga” and paced around nervously backstage.
All five episodes of the series are available Netflix despite speculation that it had been cancelled by Netflix. The show has been released ahead of next month’s Invictus Games which will be in Dusseldorf from September 9 over eight days and attended by Harry and Meghan.
Harry is its executive producer and the show forms part of the Sussexes’ deal with Netflix – with their main output so far being last year’s controversial Harry & Meghan documentary which included a series of swipes at members of the Royal Family. The six-part series last December saw the couple accuse Kensington Palace of lying to protect Prince William and King Charles of lying at the notorious Megxit summit.
Pressure is on the Invictus documentary to be a ratings success, after the couple’s other lucrative media deal with Spotify ended in June after one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes. Netflix unveiled its first trailer for the series on August 16.
Agencies
