I’m currently on the fourth episode of Heart of Invictus, the Netflix docu-series following veterans in the lead-up to the 2022 Invictus Games at The Hague. It’s a fantastic series, done well at every level – there are sad, heartbreaking parts, but it’s so uplifting too, and every single person involved with Invictus is so inspirational. It’s not a showcase for Prince Harry, it’s a showcase for what Harry built with Invictus, his vision and his passion for rehabilitating veterans and ending veteran suicide. It’s absolutely despicable that the British media’s takeaway from the series has been “Harry trashes his family yet again.” As I said yesterday, the Windsors are flat-out desperate to attach themselves to Harry and his work. They’re trying to hijack Invictus and turn it into a story about how “Harry lied.” Becky English at the Mail wrote a new piece: “Harry reopens his war wounds: He’s been quiet for months, but now the Duke’s back on Netflix and moaning there was no ‘support structure’ to help him after Afghan tour.” Imagine writing “moaning” while 22 veterans kill themselves every day.

After a period of relative calm, Prince Harry reopened old wounds with fresh swipes at the Royal Family today, claiming no one helped him as his life ‘unravelled’ after returning from Afghanistan. The Duke of Sussex used a new Netflix documentary series to air his gripes following months where the once-regular blasts at the royals from the California-based prince had seemingly subsided.

In his Heart of Invictus documentary series, focusing on his sporting tournament for injured veterans, Harry said he felt no emotion and was unable to cry when he came home from war and finally confronted the trauma of losing his mother. The duke said his biggest struggle was that ‘no one around me could really help’ – despite the fact that in 2017 he credited his brother Prince William with being ‘a huge support’.

Tonight several sources with knowledge of the situation over the years raised eyebrows at Harry’s claims. While stressing they would not belittle his personal experiences, one suggested he had an ‘ongoing selective memory’.

Harry served two Army tours in Afghanistan, writing in his biography Spare how he had killed 25 Taliban insurgents in his Apache helicopter. He said mental health was a ‘dirty word’ in 2008 when he served his first tour, and it was only when he returned from his second in 2013 that he became aware of the trauma he had kept bottled up since Princess Diana’s fatal car crash 16 years earlier.

He told the documentary: ‘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.’

His claim, however, appears at odds with an interview he gave in 2017, in which he said: ‘My brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it’s OK.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This is grotesque. The fact that the Windsors are briefing their favorite royal reporters about Heart of Invictus, the fact that Harry’s words are being used willfully out of context, the fact that William wants “credit” for telling Harry to get therapy in 2017. Harry’s reference was to the larger lack of support for veterans dealing with PTSD, physical trauma and emotional trauma. He was speaking of his own mental health journey and how and why he founded Invictus. He was speaking to and for the thousands of veterans who experience something similar, to let them know that it’s natural and there can be healing. The Mail has no fewer than six stories about this one thing, this “Harry slams his family” lie. They are psychotic.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.