Prince Harry revealed that when he returned from deployment to Afghanistan, he didn’t have the proper "support structure" to take care of his mental health.
"The biggest struggle for me was no one around me could really help," the Duke of Sussex said in the second episode of his new Netflix docuseries "Heart of Invictus." The series focuses on the sporting competition Harry founded in 2014 for wounded service members.
He continued, "I didn’t have that support structure, that network or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me."
The 38-year-old said the struggles he dealt with after he returned from his deployment stemmed from the pain of losing his mother when he was 12.
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An expert said earlier in the episode that service members who struggle more with deployment-related PTSD usually have other issues from their life that they haven’t resolved.
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"There was an unraveling, and the trigger to me was actually returning from Afghanistan, but the stuff that was coming up was from the age of – 1997, from the age of 12," Harry said. "Losing my mum at such a young age, the trauma that I had, I was never really aware of. It wasn’t discussed. I didn’t really talk about it. And I’ve suppressed it like most youngsters would have done."
Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was killed in 1997 in a car crash in Paris while being pursued by paparazzi. She was 36 years old.
But he said once he returned from his deployment "it all came fizzing out, I was bouncing off the walls. Like, what is going on here? I’m now feeling everything as opposed to being numb."
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The royal added that sometimes people initially consider therapy is when "you’re lying on the floor in the fetal position probably wishing that you dealt with some of this stuff previously. That’s what I really want to change" with the Invictus Games.
The docuseries, which was released on Netflix on Wednesday, follows a group of wounded service members as they discuss their lives and struggles while preparing to compete in the 2022 games.
Harry’s admissions come against the backdrop of his strained relationship with his family, especially his father, King Charles III, and his brother, Prince William, which he discussed in his first Netflix docuseries, "Harry & Meghan," and his memoir, "Spare."
In January, Harry said he hadn’t spoken to William or Charles in "a while" after he and wife Meghan Markle left the U.K. for California in 2020.
Earlier this week, Harry surprised a group of theatergoers in San Diego by appearing at an advanced screening of the Invictus series.
"You all serve, whether you’re the ones who wear the uniform or whether you’re the spouse or whether you’re the child who gets moved around the country," the duke told the invited audience, according to People magazine.
Harry was deployed to Afghanistan twice: First in 2007 to 2008 as a forward air controller and a second time from 2012 to 2013 as an Apache helicopter pilot, according to the royal family website.
