Prince Harry decided to seek therapy sessions after 'lying on the floor in the fetal position'. Photo / AP
Prince Harry decided to seek therapy sessions after 'lying on the floor in the fetal position'. Photo / AP
The Duke of Sussex has told how returning from his tour of Afghanistan triggered the “trauma” of losing his mother at the age of 12.
In the second episode of his Heart of Invictus docuseries released through Netflix on Wednesday, Prince Harry said he was “bouncing off the walls” after he returned to Britain from the warzone.
He goes to say how he decided to seek therapy sessions after “lying on the floor in the fetal position”.
“From my personal experience, my tour of Afghanistan in 2012, flying Apaches, somewhere after that there was an unravelling,” he said
“And the trigger to me was returning to Afghanistan, but the stuff that was coming up was 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 never really talked about it and I’ve suppressed it like most youngsters would have done.”
The duke’s interview is played over footage of himself as a 12-year-old at Diana’s funeral.
He continued: “But when 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.
“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.
“Unfortunately like most of us the first time you really consider therapy is when you’re lying on the floor in the fetal position probably wishing you had dealt with some of this stuff previously. That’s what I really want to change.
“I’ve always wanted the Invictus Games and the support that comes with that all year round to be a net to catch those individuals.”
In the first episode, entitled ‘Something needs to change’, he says: “I’m Harry, a dad of two, .. couple of dogs, husband, there’s lots of hats one wears but today is all about Invictus”.
The duke, who undertook two tours of Afghanistan, discusses how he never wanted to serve in the armed forces as a father.
Chatting during a hike with his friends, former Invictus competitors JJ Chalmers and David Wiseman, Harry says: “I’ve always had myself down as being the dad that I could never be serving while having kids. And you both did, right?
“It’s never the individual signing up - it’s the whole family signing up.”
While addressing the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in April last year, the duke told participants his son Archie wanted to be a pilot or an astronaut when he grows up.
The moment features in the second episode of the five-part docuseries, which forms part of the Sussexes’ multimillion-pound deal with Netflix - with their main output so far being last year’s controversial Harry & Meghan documentary.
“When I talk to my son Archie about what he wants to be when he grows up, sometimes it’s an astronaut, other days it’s a pilot, but what I remind him is that no matter what you want to be when you grow up it’s your character that matters most, and nothing would make me and his mum prouder than to see him have the character of what we see before us today - you,” the Duke says.
Heart of Invictus has been released in the run-up to next month’s Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The series, which was first announced more than two years ago, has been made by Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions company.
It is directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Joanna Natasegara, who worked together on the Oscar-winning short The White Helmets.
Harry is set to travel to Germany for the entirety of the next tournament, which begins on September 9, while Meghan will join him shortly after the games begin.
The international multi-sport event was first held in 2014 for wounded injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans.
