You know it’s bad for the Windsors when even their biggest media supporters are writing columns about how they’re stupid and short-sighted. To recap, the Windsors refused to acknowledge the Invictus Games in The Hague (2022) and Dusseldorf (2023). King Charles wouldn’t even wish the British Invictus team well ahead of the Dusseldorf games, nor was any support or well-wishes offered as British veterans won several medals. In fact, the Windsors busied themselves with fake work in an attempt to “torpedo” of the Dusseldorf games, to no avail. Now the British government is pulling out the stops to win the bid to host the 2027 Invictus games, and they’ve even put together this fakakta anniversary service next week, for which Prince Harry is flying in to attend. He’s reportedly invited his family to attend and they refuse. Which has led the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes to devote a Royalist column to royal sources talking about how the Windsors are spiteful morons for continuing to snub and ignore Invictus.
The king will not send anyone to the Invictus service: It seems that Charles’ very public expressions of magnanimity, perhaps even being willing to again receive his son for another face-to-face audience, only go so far, with sources suggesting he will not order a working royal surrogate such as Prince Edward to attend the Invictus event.
Ah, Invictus needs a royal boost, huh? The absence of formal royal endorsement is likely to be particularly annoying for Invictus as the royal seal of approval turbocharges fundraising efforts. Invictus, as their annual reports show, is a nonprofit funded by a mixture of sponsorship (Boeing is the lead sponsor), ticket sales, charitable donations, and commercial initiatives such as the Netflix series Heart of Invictus.
The palace bubble: One source, a former courtier, told The Daily Beast: “Charles has made it quite clear he is ready to be friendly and supportive to Harry in his capacity as a private person, as his dad, but he is not going to throw the weight of the institution behind Invictus again. This all seems very logical inside the Palace bubble, but the trouble is that people who don’t particularly care about such things, who are dimly aware that the royals spend their days visiting community centers and opening supermarkets, are going to wonder why they are boycotting this terrific charity that is headed by the king’s son. Many of us think this is a classic example of the royals cutting off their nose to spite their face, because Invictus is clearly exactly the kind of organization the royal family should be supporting. If a bridge is ever going to be built [between Harry and the royals], Invictus is the bridgehead to build it from, and they should get on and do it.”
A potential Birmingham games: Indeed, some insiders are quietly wondering whether the royal family’s hand will be forced if the British city of Birmingham wins its bid to host the 2027 Invictus Games. A military source involved in the Games told The Daily Beast: “Harry has done the veterans community proud with Invictus, but some people feel it’s not fair to deny the foundation proper royal endorsement, especially after Queen Elizabeth was so generous to us. [The late queen recorded a video promoting Invictus which also featured Barack and Michelle Obama.] It was explicitly set up as an organization endorsed by the royal family, but now it’s not; it is stuck in this limbo. If Birmingham get it for 2027 the royals are going to have to send someone, so they might as well get it over with now.”
The Windsors look churlish & petty on the world stage: Another factor that is embarrassing for the British establishment’s very overt refusal to endorse Invictus is the enthusiasm with which it is greeted by dignitaries overseas. Indeed, after his brief sojourn in London next week, Harry will fly to Nigeria where he will be joined by wife Meghan Markle—who has disclosed that an ancestry test revealed she is 43-percent Nigerian—for what is promising to be an extraordinary quasi-state visit. … Their reception in Nigeria, as guests of a government that has expressed interest in hosting the Invictus Games, will cut a sharp contrast to the studiously indifferent welcome they are likely to receive in the U.K. They are likely to be figuratively showered in rose petals—and paraded through government buildings in a major coup for the regime.
It’s not just the Nigerian government – Harry has been treated as a high-level dignitary by the German government, the Dutch government (and the Dutch king), the Canadian government, NATO and on and on. The Windsors are so consumed with hatred, spite and pettiness over all things Sussex, they can’t even… congratulate the British Invictus team or acknowledge Invictus as an organization. Also, it’s a complete f–king joke to say that Invictus “needs” a royal endorsement to raise money. Invictus is well-funded because Harry sought international funding years ago. Compare this to the royally-endorsed Commonwealth Games, which are so broke-ass that no country even wants to go through the hassle of hosting the games.
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