Prince Harry
British royal family left him alone with war trauma
© Andy Stenning / Picture Alliance
Prince Harry opens up about severe personal trauma in his new Netflix documentary. Another dig at the British royal family?
Prince Harry: Lack of mental health support?
“The biggest problem for me was that nobody around me could really help me,” says the Duke of Sussex in the Netflix series he is producing. “I had no support structure, no network and no advice from experts who could determine what was really going on with me.”
A further complication for the 38-year-old father of Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2, was that his war trauma – Harry himself claims in his controversial autobiography “Reserve” to have killed 25 Taliban in battle – himself on one drew attention to a much deeper, terrible experience: the much too early, tragic accidental death of his mother, Princess Diana, † 36, when he was just twelve years old.
“Curled Up On The Floor In Fetal Position”
“Losing my mother at such a young age, I was never aware of the trauma I had. It was never discussed and I didn’t really talk about it and put it aside like most other youngsters would have. Than that When everything came out, I hit walls,” reveals Harry in his new Netflix program. After the war operations mentioned at the beginning, he then experienced another low point. “Unfortunately, the first time you think about therapy is when you’re curled up on the floor in the fetal position, probably wishing you’d thought about these things sooner.”
With his documentary series “Invictus Games: In the heart invincible” and the Invictus Games for war-disabled soldiers taking place in Düsseldorf next month, Prince Harry has set himself the goal of raising awareness of psychological trauma and mental health, especially in the military.
“When I joined the military, ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ were considered dirty words,” notes Harry. He wanted to “really change” that for the future. Nevertheless, a number of observers understand Harry’s new statements as another dig at the British royal family and its royal relatives. Already in the previous Netflix documentary of the Sussexes, “Harry & Meghan”, Prince William’s brother, 41, complained that he had to deal with the accidental death of his mother “without much support, help or guidance”.
Source used: “Invictus Games: Invincible at Heart”