It is a painful memory that Prince Harry would rather forget. In 2007, he faced one of the biggest disappointments of his life: having to leave the army.
Prince Harry has always struggled to find a role within the Royal Family. Although he now seems more fulfilled after deciding to give up all his royal duties and leave England for California with his wife Meghan Markle and son Archie, Prince William’s brother has experienced several disappointments in his life.
One of the biggest was certainly that he had to leave the army in 2007, when he thought he had finally found his way, as reported in Point of View magazine. Fourteen years ago, the youngest son of Princess Diana and Prince Charles had to give up serving in Iraq because the risks involved were too great.
A hard blow for the then 23-year-old, according to journalist Duncan Larcombe, who wrote a biography about him: “He was living for the army and, until he was banned from going to Iraq, he was convinced that he had finally given his life a purpose.
As Point of View recounts, Harry didn’t let himself down for long and went to Afghanistan for ten weeks anyway. It was there that he finally realised that his status did not allow him to carry out all the particularly dangerous missions in these conflict zones.
After ten years of service, he then decided to resign from the army. A decision that caused the Windsor family to fear that the rebellious child of the family would lose the balance that he had managed to find so well or so badly.
Is Prince Harry still in the midst of an identity crisis?
Now freed from all royal duties and traditions, Harry leads a freer and more independent life in the United States. The grandson of Queen Elisabeth II, finally even indulges in all the fantasies that he had to deprive himself of when he had an image to hold.
So he seems to be doing everything he can to mark a break with his previous life, even changing his look. A rumour started by actor Rob Lowe in a James Corden talk show, says that Prince Harry has grown a ponytail. Perhaps a new way for the 36-year-old father to assert his own identity by freeing himself even more from the hold of his elders.
In any case, according to British historian and biographer Robert Lacey, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would have no regrets about their Megxit, even though Harry still laments the tense situation with his family.
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