Prince Harry revealed on Wednesday, April 27, that he received psychological testing after being deployed to Afghanistan in December 2007.
The British royal had been secretly serving in the British Army for 10 weeks when journalist Matt Drudge revealed the Prince’s location on the Drudge Report. According to The New York Times, the defense ministry immediately had Harry return home for fear that his presence would make the British soldiers serving with him a target. Though his tour of duty was cut short, the royal’s encounters in the war zone still haunt him.
Harry, 31, opened up to Sky News on Wednesday about how he was scarred by the “images [he has] been unfortunate to see” during his deployment while discussing his upcoming Invictus Games, a multisport event that helps bring attention to wounded soldiers and their journeys toward recovery and rehabilitation.
“You know, I described it to someone ages ago as one of those slide shows that go through your mind,” he told the outlet. “If you’ve got a good imagination as well, everything that you see, especially if it’s something that is quite powerful, then that slide is in there. It’s always in there and if you have dark moments in your life, those slides will pop up.”
Harry explained that during his debriefing session in Cyprus, he went through mandatory psychological tests. “The army put you through a day, two-day course on the way back through Cyprus, which is crucial to everybody,” he explained. “There are images I’ve been lucky enough not to see, but there have been images that I’ve been unfortunate to see, nothing like some of these guys, but, yes, there is a percentage of me being able to relate to exactly what they go through.”
This isn’t the first time Harry has opened up about his time serving in the military. The handsome royal told Good Morning America last month that he was “broken” when he was forced to leave the war-torn region. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to them,” he said of his squad members. “And then suddenly I find myself on a plane that’s delayed because a Danish soldier’s coffin was being put onto the plane.”
The Invictus Games will kick off in Orlando on May 8.
