LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry says he didn’t have the support he needed when he returned home from combat in Afghanistan as he reached out to other veterans in a new Netflix series about the Invictus Games for injured soldiers.
The new series launched on Wednesday on the streaming service.
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In talking about post-traumatic stress disorder, Harry said that his return from Afghanistan in 2012 triggered emotions that he suppressed after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was just 12 years old. The prince, whose troubles with the royal family have been chronicled in the past, said the impact of Diana’s death was never discussed.
“The biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help; I didn’t have that support structure, that network or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me,” Harry said. “Unfortunately, like most of us, the first time you consider therapy is when you are lying on the floor in the fetal position probably wishing you had dealt with some of this stuff previously.”
“Heart of Invictus” features a group of injured soldiers as they prepared for last year’s Invictus Games in The Netherlands.
Modeled after the Warrior Games in the United States, Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 as a Paralympic-style event designed to inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries.
Harry and his wife, the former Meghan Markle, signed a lucrative contract to produce content for Netflix after they stepped away from royal duties in 2020 and moved to Southern California. “Harry & Meghan,” a six-part series detailing the couple’s split from the royal family, premiered last year.
Harry, who is also known as the Duke of Sussex, appeared at a preview screening of the new series in California on Tuesday, telling the audience about the sacrifices veterans and their families make while serving their countries.
“You guys get to watch it tonight — or at least two episodes — to whet the appetite for the rest of it,” Harry said in a video circulated on social media.