As Meghan makes only brief cameos in the new Netflix documentary, Prince Harry appears to take another shot at the Royal family by saying he didn’t have a support network after his return from Afghanistan and he “curled up on the floor in foetal position.”Contributions from Mark Duell, Rory Tingle, Dan Sales, Danya Bazaraa, and Harry Howard 30 August 2023, 5:26 AM EDT
In another apparent jab at the Royal Family, Prince Harry used the release of his new Netflix series, Heart Of Invictus, to say that he did not have a support network after returning from duty in Afghanistan and that his trauma was “never discussed.”
The documentary focuses heavily on the Duke of Sussex, while his wife, Meghan Markle, makes only brief cameo appearances.Also, Harry admitted on the show that he had no idea he was still traumatized by his mother’s death in Paris in August 1997, when he was only 12 years old.Harry remarked, “When I got back from Iraq in 2008, the biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help.” He continued, “I didn’t have that support structure, that network, or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me.”
“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,” he added. And that’s what I’d like to alter the most.This morning, alongside the release of the latest project from the Sussexes’ £80 million contract with Netflix, Harry also detailed his roles as a father of two, a dog owner, and a spouse.At the outset, when asked “What’s your name?” the Duke of Sussex said, “My name’s Harry.” After a little pause, the interviewer said, “What do you do, Harry?”Harry questioned, “What do I do?” In a normal day? I’m a founding supporter of the Invictus Games Foundation, a spouse, and the father of two young children (both under the age of three).
There are many roles one can play, but for me, it is all about Invictus.The documentary also shows Harry and Meghan having a quiet moment together before Harry gives a speech to war veterans at New York’s Salute to Freedom Gala in November 2021. The Duke can be heard telling the Duchess that he is nervous.’We haven’t done this in a while,’ Harry was overheard adding. Then Meghan said, “I know.” Harry shuffled uncomfortably backstage, muttering, “My heart like digidigadigadiga.”Despite rumors to the contrary, Netflix made all five episodes of the docuseries available at 8am UK time (midnight California time).
The Invictus Games, which Harry and Meghan will attend, will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany, on September 9 and last for eight days. The show has been issued in anticipation of the event.
In addition to last year’s controversial Harry & Meghan documentary, which took several jabs at members of the Royal Family, Harry is the show’s executive producer, and it is part of the Sussexes’ partnership with Netflix.
In the six-part documentary that aired on Netflix in December, the pair claimed that Prince William and King Charles had lied during the infamous Megxit summit and that Kensington Palace had lied to cover it up. Since the couple’s other lucrative media partnership with Spotify expired in June after one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes, the success of the Invictus documentary is highly anticipated. On August 16, Netflix released the first official trailer for the upcoming season.For the Netflix film adaptation of Carley Fortune’s love story Meet Me at the Lake, Harry and Meghan have reportedly paid £3 million. In a new episode of the Invictus series, Harry discusses PTSD and trauma suffered by soldiers in combat zones, drawing on his own personal experiences.
He continues, “Look, I can only speak from me own experience, but from my tour in Afghanistan in 2012 flying Apaches, somewhere after that there was an unraveling.” Highlighted comments from Prince Harry’s ‘Heart of Invictus’ series on Netflix: “I didn’t realize the anguish I’d had from losing my mom when I was so young.
It was never brought up, and like most kids my age, I buried the topic deep inside and avoided talking about it. When it finally hit me, I was like a pinball flying through the air: ‘What the hell is going on here? I am now experiencing everything rather than simply being young.'”It wasn’t until later in my life, at the age of 28, that a circumstance occurred, and then suddenly it was like someone shook and it went ‘poof’ – and then it was chaos,” he says of his realization of the trauma.
Everywhere I went, my feelings were splashed all over the walls, and I remember thinking, “How the hell am I supposed to contain this?” I’ve gone from having nothing to having everything, and my therapist has told me to put myself in a glass jar, close the top, and leave it slightly ajar so that I can decide what goes in and what gets bounced out.”The biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help,” the returning Afghanistan war vet said in 2008. I didn’t have someone to turn to for assistance or a network of people who might be able to help me figure out what was wrong with me.”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,” he said of his mental health issues. And that’s what I’d like to alter the most.Asked about his personal history, he replied, “What do I do?” In a normal day? I’m a founding supporter of the Invictus Games Foundation, a spouse, and the father of two young children (both under the age of three).
There are many roles one can play, but for me, it is all about Invictus.I’ve always written myself off as the kind of father who would never enlist in the military after starting a family. It’s seldom just one person who signs up, but rather an entire household.Whenever he and I discuss his future career goals, his son Archie fluctuates between wanting to be an astronaut and wanting to be a pilot. But I tell him, “Remember, it’s your character that counts the most, not your aspirations for the future.””Let’s just put that to the side and talk about mental fitness,” the speaker said, referring to the topic of discussing mental health in the armed services.
If there is discrimination in the armed forces, then there will be discrimination in civilian life as well. We need to set an example if we are to succeed in eradicating the social stigma associated with mental illness.One stride forward, three steps back, but the longer that they persist, then a lot of these individuals go through and out of that trench that they have been caught in, he said of the Invictus contestants.”The whole reason I was allowed to go to Afghanistan in the first place was because it was kept a secret,” he said of his service there. For the entire ten weeks I was there, not even the British press reported my presence, saying instead, “we’ll keep quiet as long as we get access.””To suddenly be on the way home I was angry,” the soldier said of his withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, my removal was necessary to ensure the wellbeing of those around me.
That flight home had a profound effect on how I reflected on my time in Afghanistan. The curtain in front of me blew open as we stepped out. The only thing visible was the air medical facility. The bodies of three young British servicemen were found wrapped in plastic.Commercial MessageMy return from Afghanistan was the catalyst, but the memories that surfaced were from 1997, when I was 12 years old. I didn’t realize the anguish I’d had from losing my mother so early.Nothing was ever said about it, and like most kids my age, I tried to keep the subject to myself.
When it finally hit me, I was like a pinball flying through the air: ‘What the hell is going on here? I am now experiencing everything rather than simply being young.’The fact that I had no actual support system was the hardest thing.
I didn’t have someone to turn to for assistance or a network of people who might be able to help me figure out what was wrong with me.You, like the rest of us, probably wish you had dealt with some of these stuff before you were lying on the floor in the foetal position and contemplating treatment for the first time. And that’s what I’d like to alter the most.Canadian indoor rower Darrell Ling, with whom Harry discusses trauma, thanks him for his understanding: “I’m glad you’ve been through this stuff and know how we feel.”The Duke continues, “I can’t claim to know what you’ve been through, but I had that point in my life where I had no feeling, I was unable to cry, I was unable to feel, and it was due of the pain of losing my Mom when I was 12.
The truth was hidden from me at the time. And it wasn’t until a circumstance arose when I was 28 that the first few bubbles began to emerge, and then all of a sudden it was like someone shook it and it went ‘poof’ – and then it was anarchy.Everywhere I went, my feelings were splashed all over the walls, and I remember thinking, “How the hell am I supposed to contain this?” I’ve gone from having nothing to having everything, and my therapist has told me to put myself in a glass jar, close the top, and leave it slightly ajar so that I can decide what goes in and what gets bounced out.Harry, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan in 2007–2008 and again in 2012–2013, reveals that he never wanted his children to see him in uniform.
The Duke, father to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, says, “I’ve always had myself down as being the dad that I could never be serving while having kids.” He makes the remark while hiking with his buddies, former Invictus competitors JJ Chalmers and David Wiseman. You two did it, right? It’s seldom just one person who signs up, but rather an entire household.
“The wise guy claims that his pregnant wife Lucy was with him when he was shot and wounded in Afghanistan.The first scene of the show takes place in July of 2021, when Harry greets Chalmers and Wiseman with a hug and a “Morning lads” at his (presumably) Montecito, California, house.
To which Harry responds, “Shall we go for a hike?” as the three of them climb into the duke’s automobile.The documentary also features Harry’s speech to the athletes at the Invictus Games in The Hague last April, in which he tells them, “It is here at Invictus Games that you realise – whatever you carry was the springboard that propelled you to the next level.”Cheers to improving yourself till you’re the best you can be!
The you that you’ve been missing, the one your loved ones have been missing, the one your own children have been missing. My kid Archie alternates between wanting to be an astronaut and a pilot when I ask him what he wants to be when he grows up.But I tell him that the most important thing is the content of his character, not his career aspirations. Nothing would make his mother and I happier than if he developed the same moral fiber that we see in you today.
In the same interview, the Duke emphasizes the need for open dialogue on mental health in the military, adding, “When I joined the military mental health, mental illness was a dirty word.”My work with [Invictus Games co-founder] David Wiseman, giving talks to people within the military and encouraging them to accept the notion that “mental health” means “mental illness” — which it does not — but which it does in your mentality — is one of the things I am most proud of.If there is discrimination in the armed forces, then there will be discrimination in civilian life as well.
We need to set an example if we are to succeed in eradicating the social stigma associated with mental illness. Harry adds, “I feel it very personally because I have always felt that every life that is lost could have been a life saved.” And I believe that we, as a nation, can improve our treatment of veterans in particular.The Invictus Games, this community, and my personal life have all taught me that, “if you put your mind to something, there is almost always a positive out of it.”As archival footage of the 2014 Invictus Games highlights athletes’ victories and one athlete’s fall in the 200-meter dash, Harry also talks on the athletes’ ability to overcome adversity.
One stride forward, three steps back, but the longer that they persist, then a lot of these individuals go through and out of the trench that they have been caught in,” adds the Duke.They have finally put the past in the past. They have a more optimistic outlook on life, which has repercussions not only for themselves but also for their friends and neighbors.
And that is precisely what it is that we hope to do here.In another complaint, Harry says, “The whole reason I was allowed to go to Afghanistan in the first place was because it was kept a secret.”For the entire ten weeks I was there, not even the British press reported my presence, saying instead, “we’ll keep quiet as long as we get access.”In 2008, Harry’s secret was broken when the American website Drudge Report revealed the existence of a news blackout. They’re naming him ‘Harry the Hero!,’ the website exclaimed, announcing a ‘global exclusive.The Duke continues, “To suddenly be on the way home I was angry,” in the documentary. However, my removal was necessary to ensure the wellbeing of those around me.
“That flight home had a profound effect on how I reflected on my time in Afghanistan.”The curtain in front of me blew open as we stepped out. The only thing visible was the air medical facility. The bodies of three young British servicemen were found wrapped in plastic.People had talked about it, but I saw it for myself. That event served as the catalyst for understanding the true cost of war. The lives of not just those people, but also their loved ones, would be altered irrevocably.When I walked off the plane, I was furious, both at what had happened to these individuals and at the media for ignoring the story. But it wasn’t obvious to me at that time what had to be done.In another portion, recorded two days before the Invictus Games in April of last year, we hear from Harry.
‘After so many delays because of the global pandemic, with all the madness that’s occurring in the globe, what’s happening in Ukraine, to be here today in the games with all the people that have been patiently waiting till 2020 is a relief,’ the Duke says.We never thought it would happen, and the experience has been extremely up and down for everyone involved.While I can’t imagine how challenging training has been for everyone involved, I would say that these athletes have had more time to prepare for the games than anyone else.
“The vast majority of those who have made it to the Invictus Games and the vast majority of those who are alive today are because of their support network, is because of their family, is because of their friends.”This week at the games is like mandatory group the
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