Prince Harry has said he was "broken" when a security breach forced him to quickly leave his military deployment in Afghanistan in 2008.
He told Good Morning America on Thursday that he felt he was abandoning men serving with him when security officials rushed him back to Britain after news of his frontline deployment was published.
He said his 10 years in the British army provided "the best escape I've ever had" and that he felt he was achieving something by being part of a team.
"All I wanted to do was prove to other people that I had a certain set of skills - let's say flying an Apache helicopter, for instance - rather than just being Prince Harry," he said.
Harry was promoting the upcoming Invictus Games for wounded veterans.
