Prince Harry claims he had no mental health support after Afghan tour despite once saying William suggested therapy

30 August 2023, 15:32 | Updated: 30 August 2023, 17:09

Prince Harry has claimed that he had no support for his mental health after his army tour in Afghanistan - despite saying in a 2017 interview that Prince William had encouraged him to get therapy upon his return.

In his new Netflix documentary, the Duke of Sussex said "no-one around me really could help" following his return from the war.

An interview before his acrimonious split from the Royal Family contradicts his statement. He said that the Prince of Wales said to him: "Look, you really need to deal with this. It is not normal to think that nothing has happened to you."

Read More: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle set for first joint public appearance since New York paparazzi chase

Speaking to the Mad World podcast, Harry went on to say that the difficulties he suffered after his return were more related to the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997 rather than trauma related to his time at war.

The Prince said he experienced an ‘unravelling’ after he returned from his tour of Afghanistan as he admitted it triggered trauma about the death of his mother in his new Invictus Games docuseries.

The Duke of Sussex used his Heart of Invictus docuseries to reveal the struggles he faced following the tour in 2012, as he said it dredged up trauma from Princess Diana’s death that he had never really addressed.

Speaking in his Heart of Invictus docuseries on Netflix, Prince Harry said he had no “support structure” and nobody around him “could really help”.

The £80m docuseries, which was released on Netflix at 8am on Wednesday, follows the lives of those preparing for the Invictus Games.

Meghan Markle appears in the five-party documentary series, although only in a brief number of scenes.

The games are an adaptive sports competition launched by Harry in 2014 for injured service personnel and veterans.

Speaking on the new show, the Duke opened up about his experience of post-traumatic stress disorder, which he said was triggered by his return from a tour of Afghanistan in 2012 as it triggered an “unravelling”.

“I didn't have that support structure, that network or that expert advice to identify actually what was going on with me," the Duke confirmed

Harry added: “Unfortunately, like most of us the first time you really 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.”