Prince Harry reignites royal feud in new Netflix documentary Heart of Invictus

Prince Harry has the royal family in the Heart of Invictus. From his Diana breakdown to Meghan’s absence, here are the biggest bombshells.

Prince Harry is set to inflame tensions with the royals after the release of his new documentary, the Heart of Invictus, reopened the family feud’s old wounds.

While an apparent armistice of hostilities had led to speculation of reconciliation talks in recent weeks, the Duke of Sussex’s new Netflix series took more potshots at his family’s continued failings.

In the five-part series, which focuses on the recovery of wounded war veterans, Prince Harry said his family’s lack of support after the death of Princess Diana left him with PTSD, while their absence after returning from Afghanistan left him curled up in the “foetal position”.

“The trigger to me was actually returning from Afghanistan, but the stuff that was coming up was from … 1997 from the age of 12,” Prince Harry said, referencing his mother’s death.

“The biggest struggle for me is that no one around me could really help.”

Prince Harry's took potshots at the Royal family in his new Netflix documentary, Heart of Invictus. Picture: Netflix

While not mentioned by name, Prince Harry’s implication that his father, King Charles III, and brother, Prince William, abandoned him when he needed them most is among the biggest bombshells.

“I didn’t have that support structure, that network, or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me,” Prince Harry added.

The statements contradict a previous interview Prince Harry gave in 2017 when he thanked Prince William for insisting he get professional help for his mental health.

“It’s all about timing. And for me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me,” Prince Harry told the Mad World podcast.

“He kept saying this is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it’s OK.”

Six years later, however, Prince Harry said in the Heart of Invictus that he had no support and “suppressed” the trauma from losing his mother to a Paris car crash at “such a young age”.

He never considered his emotions until they “all came fizzing out,” he added.

“I was bouncing off the walls,” he recalled. “Like, what is going on here? I’m feeling everything as opposed to being numb.”

“Unfortunately, like most of us, the first time you really consider therapy is when you’re lying on the floor in the foetal position, probably wishing that you dealt with some of this stuff previously,” he said.

The new series dropped Wednesday evening after Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at a preview screening in California.

“You guys get to see Heart of Invictus, which has been the last two years in the making,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Here are the most explosive moments from the series.

MEGHAN MARKLE’S ABSENCE

Meghan Markle’s relative absence from the series was notable given Prince Harry so publicly and enthusiastically criticised his family’s lack of support.

As the Duke of Sussex delved into his personal trauma and PTSD, his was seen in only brief glimpses during the documentary’s run time.

In the first episode, Ms Markle is seen supporting Prince Harry as he awaits to give a speech at the Salute to Freedom Gala in New York. It was their first public event after Covid lockdowns were lifted in late 2021.

“We haven’t done this for a while,” Prince Harry says, referencing their farewell tour in March 2020, when they made their last appearance as working royals.

“I know,” she replies.

Other than that brief exchange and a few appearances in the background, she is largely absent from the series.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Salute To Freedom Gala. Picture: Getty Images

STRIPPED OF MILITARY HONOUR

Prince Harry made a subtle jab at being stripped of the privilege to wear his military uniform at official events.

After he quit the royal family, he was denied the ability to wear his military uniform and was only allowed to don the garb once again for the Queen’s vigil, at the edict of the new King.

“You did it every day, wearing a uniform and for one reason or another that uniform had to be hung up,” Prince Harry said ahead of the 2022 Invictus Games.

“That service that runs in your blood, our blood, never leaves the body. It is there.”

While Prince Harry was given the honour of wearing his uniform to farewell the Queen, he was back in a morning suit for the coronation of King Charles III.

AFGHANISTAN PTSD

Prince Harry said he became traumatised after he toured Afghanistan

“Look, I can only speak for my personal experience, my tour of Afghanistan in 2012 flying Apaches, somewhere after that there was an unravelling and the trigger for me was actually returning from Afghanistan,” he said.

“But 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, I was like, ‘what is going on here? I am now feeling everything as opposed to being numb.’”

Elsewhere in the series, Prince Harry said the “first few bubbles” of trauma started coming out at the age of 28, and his life went “poof” into “chaos”.

‘My emotions were sprayed all over the wall everywhere I went and I was like “how the hell do I contain this?” I’ve gone from nothing to everything and I now need to get a glass jar and put myself in it, put myself in it, leave the lid open and my therapist said “you choose what comes in and everything else bounces off. “’

BEING A FATHER

Prince Harry acknowledged he could never serve in the military while also having children, saying “It’s never the individual signing up – it’s the whole family signing up.”

“The whole reason I was allowed to go to Afghanistan in the first place was because it was kept a secret. While I was there for the ten weeks no one knew apart from the British Press who said ‘we’ll keep quiet as long as we get access”,” he said.

”To suddenly be on the way home I was angry. But it was important for everyone around me — their safety — to remove me. My own experience in Afghanistan was really affected by that flight home. As we took off, the curtain in front of me blew open. And all you could see was the air hospital. Three young British soldiers all wrapped in plastic and their bodies in pieces.”

Prince Harry talks to his son, Archie, about what he wants to be when he grows up.

“Some days it’s an astronaut, some days it’s a pilot. But what I remind him is no matter what you want to be when you grow up, it’s your character that matters most,” he said.