A week ago, the Daily Mirror “broke” a story which had already been broken dozens of times before. That story? Prince Harry has “invited” his father, King Charles, to attend the Birmingham Invictus Games. Ever since Invictus chose Birmingham to host the games, people have been talking about this exact scenario. It’s not like the Mirror has some big exclusive, and yet ever since that story broke, the British tabloids have been screaming and crying about it. The Daily Mail’s Amanda Platell believes that the British public would be “appalled” if the head of Britain’s Armed Forces went to a veteran-specific warrior-games-style event which was founded by the king’s son. Sources are crying about how Prince Harry “trapped” his father, because it would look horrible if Charles snubbed Invictus just because of the Windsors’ fixation on “punishing” the Sussexes. So now we’re back to another old chestnut: royal commentators crying about how Harry should step down from Invictus.

On the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential, royal experts Richard Eden and Richard Kay examine claims Prince Harry’s camp is using ‘public pressure’ to coax King Charles into appearing at the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham. The pair were responding to a column in the Mail this week by their colleague Amanda Platell, who argued the King should refuse his son’s request after details of the invitation appeared in the press.

Diary editor Eden suggested the invitation had been planted by Harry’s PR team, in the hope it would push the monarch into making an appearance. In evidence of this claim, Eden pointed to Mail on Sunday Editor-at-Large Charlotte Griffiths, who said last year she was fed favourable stories by the Sussexes’ advisers.

Regardless, Eden argued the controversy already surrounding an event still eleven months away was reason enough for Harry to consider stepping away from the Games altogether.

‘Pressure is always put on the King and Queen,’ Eden said. ‘We saw this in the run-up to Harry and Meghan’s visit to Britain, didn’t we? We had three weeks of speculation, all about the security and whether they would bring the children. It all seems like public pressure and it’s really not the way the royal family has traditionally operated. You would expect an invitation like this to go out behind the scenes, and that it all would be done in private. This kind of public pressure is awful really.’

‘It’s something that Amanda Platell certainly feels strongly about. Her view was that the King would be giving in, but the problem is you do not want to see the Invictus Games turned into some sort of personal football. Personally, I would like to see Harry step down from it, to distance himself from Invictus. It would get rid of that controversial element and the Games would prosper as a result.’

Veteran royal correspondent Richard Kay agreed the invitation may have been deliberately fed to the press. He noted how ‘unusual’ it was for an engagement to surface so far in advance, pointing out that royal diaries are set at six-monthly intervals. He suggested Harry may have hoped to bypass the aides who run his father’s diary, men the Duke views as unsympathetic to him, by appealing directly through the press.

Kay argued: ‘It does feel like Harry is trying to bounce his father into something ahead of time… it’s entirely possible that Harry sees enemies among Charles’s staff, the people who run his diary and look after him. It does feel slightly desperate. I am certain the King will want to go along anyway to support it. One of the things the royal family likes to be identified with more than any other, I would argue, is their support for the armed forces. Invictus is a feather in Harry’s cap, without a doubt. But, if it is being used just to promote himself, that would grate a bit.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Kay “noted how ‘unusual’ it was for an engagement to surface so far in advance” – Harry really got their asses! Now they can’t lie and claim that they weren’t told about the dates or that there was a mix-up with the invitations. They put the ball in Charles’ court. They’re giving him plenty of advance notice, these dates are not going to change, this is something that needs to be penciled in a year in advance, and now Charles must decide what he will do. And maybe that was the point of “leaking” it to the Mirror too, if that’s what actually happened. It’s not about public pressure as much as it’s about Harry creating a public record of the invitation being extended, so the palace can’t lie about it later.

As for the crap about “Harry should step aside” – they’ve wanted that for years. Eden is the same commentator who said, in so many words, that Harry should step down from Invictus so another royal can “take over.” And we all know who that royal would be. It’s not a real threat though, given Prince William’s shocking laziness. Anyway, prepare yourselves – they’re going to keep saying outrageous BS about Invictus for the next year.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.