'Jeez I went to war, twice': Harry says military service 'burst bubble' of Royal life
8 December 2022, 09:16 | Updated: 8 December 2022, 09:51
Episode three of Harry & Meghan sees the Duke of Sussex discussing his decade-long stint in the army and describing how that time "burst" the bubble of his life in the royal family.
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The highly-anticipated series is being put out in two parts, with the first three episodes of the six-part docu-series now available to stream.
The Duke of Sussex said in the third episode of the tell-all Netflix series that he believes his service in Afghanistan made him "grow up pretty hard."
He served two tours in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2012. In 2007, he was secretly deployed to Afghanistan, where he helped fight Taliban insurgents as a forward air controller.
After 10 weeks, he was forced to return to the United Kingdom because a news outlet leaked information about his presence in Afghanistan.
Harry went back to the front line in 2012 as an Apache Helicopter pilot. Although the Taliban publicly threatened to harm him, he was able to be in Afghanistan for 20 weeks.
After footage of him meeting US servicemen and women, Harry said: "Working and living with normal people - and I fully appreciate my life is not normal - certainly has an effect on you. The bubble within the bubble that I was brought up in got burst."
"I signed up for three years and they kept dangling the carrot of different options in front of me and I ended up serving ten years."
Harry said this decade in the Army gave him the "lived experience other members of my family wouldn't have."
Speaking over footage of his time as an Apache pilot in Afghanistan, Harry said this service led to him "growing up pretty fast."
"Jeez, I went to war, twice!"
Describing the people he served with in the Army as his "second family," Harry said there were still "scars left open from my mum's awesomeness."
He said his time in the military and "working and living with normal people" has had an "effect" on him.
"The bubble within the bubble that I was brought up in got burst."
