This August 30, Prince Harry’s documentary was released via Netflix. ‘Heart of Invictus’ directed by Orlando von Einsiedel is Harry’s third project from his multi-million dollar deal with the streaming platform.
The Duke of Sussex makes small appearances throughout the five episodes that make up the documentary narrating his experiences in Afghanistan and it was there that he once again stripped the Royal Family naked.
Prince Harry in Heart of Invictus
Harry questioned the lack of a support network for his trauma following the death of his mother and his war experiences.
It is in the second episode titled ‘Invisible Injuries’, when the son of Charles III comes clean and delves into his childhood trauma, saying that living through the war on the front line brought to the surface his grief over the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Meghan Markle’s husband opened up and talked about post-traumatic stress and the mental health toll of coming back from war.
He confessed that when everything came crashing down around him, he began to feel all those emotions he had been repressing for years:
“My tour of Afghanistan in 2012, flying Apaches, somewhere after that there was an unraveling and the trigger to me was actually returning from Afghanistan and the stuff that was coming up was from 1997 from the age of 12. Losing my mum at such a young age, the trauma that I had I was never really aware of. It was never discussed, I didn’t really talk about it and I suppressed it like most youngsters would have done, but when it all came fizzing out, I was bouncing off the walls.”
The biggest struggle for Harry was, he says, not having anyone around him who could really help him. That lack of support and understanding made his process even more difficult.
Undoubtedly, a dart to his family’s heart.
“Like, ‘what is going on here? I’m now feeling everything as opposed to being numb.’ 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 made it clear that he sought professional help when he was already in a very vulnerable emotional state, feeling overwhelmed by his problems.
The Duke with this confession seeks to get people to change that attitude and begin to address and confront their problems before they come to a head.
Heart of Invictus explores the lives of wounded and ill military veterans participating in the Invictus Games, an annual competition created by Prince Harry in 2014 inspired by the American Warrior Games and the Paralympic Games.
The next edition of the Invictus Games will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany this September and both Harry and Meghan are scheduled to attend.