A few months ago, Uganda formally joined the Invictus community and announced that they would field a Ugandan team for the Birmingham Invictus Games. The whole thing was packaged around the One Year to Go Invictus events in July. Crash-cut to last week, with the Sussex family now living in Britain, and Buckingham Palace thought it would be smart to send out a “guidance” letter, clarifying Prince Harry and Meghan’s lack of royal status. A Ugandan general decided that the letter meant that King Charles does not support the Invictus Games, so the general announced that he (alone) decided to withdraw the Ugandan team from the games. The general even cited “that Harry-Meghan nonsense” as the reason for the alleged withdrawal. Instead of taking a moment and clarifying WTF was going on, Team Sussex stormed out and laid this mess at King Charles’ feet. Well, now Uganda is making a U-turn… after they got a call from Clive Alderton.
Uganda has reversed its earlier decision to withdraw from Prince Harry’s Invictus Games tournament for veterans after an intervention by King Charles III’s most senior aide, the Ugandan army said.
Colonel Chris Magezi, Uganda’s acting director defence public information, wrote on X: “The decision follows a telephone conversation between General Kainerugaba and the Principal Private Secretary to His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen of the United Kingdom, the Right Honourable Sir Clive Alderton K.C.V.O.
“In the discussion, Sir Alderton revealed that King Charles III was moved by General Kainerugaba’s sensitive consideration of the King’s opinion on the upcoming Invictus Games organized by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. Sir Alderton said King Charles III has no problem with Uganda’s participation in the Invictus Games, and encouraged the CDF to proceed with preparations for UPDF’s participation in the games.”
That’s certainly interesting, isn’t it? And the fact that this is coming from Uganda, not the palace…fascinating. Was the palace genuinely concerned about getting the blame for Uganda’s withdrawal? Perhaps. The thing is, I never even believed it was a real withdrawal. It sounded more like a loudmouth general polishing his colonialist bootlicker medals. It sounded like the British media egging the guy on to disrupt the games. At no point did it feel like a whole-ass country had decided to genuinely withdraw their team. But whatever – the palace clearly felt it needed to step in and untangle some of this mess, which is good news for Harry and Invictus, I guess.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- King Charles III and Sir Clive Alderton (left) and Idris Elba, founder of the Elba Hope Foundation and an alumnus of the King’s Trust, listen during a Youth Opportunity Summit at St James’s Palace in London, with young people, youth organisations, government officials, and representatives from the sports, education and arts sectors. Picture date: Tuesday July 15, 2025.,Image: 1022135357, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no , Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- (left to right) Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Clive Alderton, King Charles III and Idris Elba, founder of the Elba Hope Foundation and an alumnus of the King’s Trust, during a Youth Opportunity Summit at St James’s Palace in London, with young people, youth organisations, government officials, and representatives from the sports, education and arts sectors. Picture date: Tuesday July 15, 2025.,Image: 1022135333, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no , Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- (left to right) Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Clive Alderton, King Charles III and Idris Elba, founder of the Elba Hope Foundation and an alumnus of the King’s Trust, during a Youth Opportunity Summit at St James’s Palace in London, with young people, youth organisations, government officials, and representatives from the sports, education and arts sectors. Picture date: Tuesday July 15, 2025.,Image: 1022135346, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no , Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- King Charles III and his private secretary Sir Clive Alderton arriving for the King’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace Featuring: King Charles III and his private secretary Sir Clive Alderton Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Dec 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The opening ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 08 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- The opening ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 08 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- The opening ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 08 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex at the Closing Ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games at the Rogers Arena Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 16 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex at the Closing Ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games at the Rogers Arena Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 16 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
The King made a mistake the King has sorted it out.
Exactly. The king put out that letter likely to shut william up. The letter had unintended consequences, ie, the looney general in Uganda saw the letter, and being a colonizer suck up made a unilateral decision to withdraw from the Invictus Games. That wasn’t what the king wanted at all. So the king had the wasp clean up his mess.
Stop. Kainerugaba is a nepo baby (his father is Uganda’s president) who constantly shoots off his mouth and his father has to clean it up. The call from the palace let the president of Uganda save face. This is much ado about nothing.
Wherever it came from and whatever was happening behind the scenes, THIS is why Harry needs to be there for the next year. So he can respond quickly when the inbred saboteurs he is related to start cutting up.
I’m very curious what he was hearing and noticing around Sentebale before the ultimate collapse that we all saw at the end.
Ugh, Clive Alderton still running the show. Go away already.
Clive still skulking about the palace, tripping over his own 🍆 to try and make Harry look bad.
Whoops, looks like the mud blew back onto Clive’s grey suit. Womp womp.
I genuinely believe that William and Kensington forced that message on to Charles and Clive made some phone calls to smooth things over and encourage Uganda’s participation. I’m likely stating the obvious to us alI, but I think Scooter is getting unhinged behind the scenes and using the media to sabotage Harry. There seems to be a lot of whiplash and rumors flying around.
All the royal.reporters that l have seen interviewed said this was pressure from William alone . Jeremy Vine came out and said that after the wedding their was a smear campaign against the Sussexs from de other two that simply went too far , described them.simply as been jealous,.the media knows exactly what’s going on.
he is the worst.
Wow, this is a pretty powerful U-turn. I think Charles read dear Clive (CUE VAST LONG TITLES AND HONORS BECAUSE THIS BRIEFING IS OBVIOUSLY COMING FROM CLIVE….) the riot act and said: “No more shenanigans. You got your stupid statement about Harry and Meghan, now move on. Christ. Do you want your grace and favor home or not? And stop listening to my stupid heir.”
I also think this can’t be read in any other way than that Charles is backing the Inviticus Games with Harry in the lead, and plans to attend. No matter the reason – as always with the BRF, it’s a mix of incentives – but he wouldn’t have directed Clive to eat crow unless that was the ultimate goal. Yay!
“I also think this can’t be read in any other way than that Charles is backing the Inviticus Games with Harry in the lead …..”.
Unless, of course, the message (or it’s intent) conveyed was: Harry won’t always be in the lead.
With that slippery British phrasing anything is possible…but since that Ugandan general specifically called out “Harry and Meghan” in his temper tantrum, and this was a very public reprimand both to that general and to Clive, it’s more likely to me that it was Charles basically saying “He’s the son of the monarch. Quit screwing around. Let’s not make this another No Room At The Inn At Buckingham Palace disaster.”
Of course, there’s a lot of time between now and 2027 Inviticus Games so you may be right as well!
It’s a pretty big u-turn and I dont know if it means Charles is going to attend Invictus or not, but to me it definitely reads as Charles seeing the speculation about him not supporting Invictus and veterans (wounded or not) and he’s trying to do some damage control. I dont think Clive is running the show on this one. I think Clive was ordered to make this phone call.
I can’t imagine this will sit well with the barrage of criticisms directed at Uganda’s corrupt government and human right’s violations.
Once again The Firm meddling with Invictus. Like see Harry, you are nothing without us. I still believe this goes deeper with William laying the groundwork for a takeover, maybe not until Charles is gone but…Some strange is afoot at the Circle K!
How is William supposed to take over a private foundation? This is not Sentabale. Invictus is much bigger, supported by the military worldwide. The board is not interested in losing their charismatic founder, Harry is well respected by veterans and military alike. They all know William is a lightweight. Having the support of the RF is not the flex William thinks it is. Other countries couldn’t care less about the RF, they have either a monarchy themselves, or a working democracy.
Uganda was not a good choice to join the Invictus community, but on the other hand Invictus wants to encourage African and Asian countries to join. To refuse Uganda wouldn’t have been a good look in the eyes of other African countries. Invictus can’t thrive on European and North American countries alone if they want to support veterans globally, which is the ultimate goal.
Lurker,
My wording is coming across as wrong, I do understand how a private foundation works. My concern is with William and his insatiable desire to take down Harry and take away the things that matter most to him. Perhaps not a takeover in the true sense of the word but his new Sports/mental health initiative is certainly something to keep an eye on. However, given how work shy he is maybe nothing will ever really come of it.
“King Charles III was moved by General Kainerugaba’s sensitive consideration of the King’s opinion on the upcoming Invictus Games…” Love the diplomatic language – creep, crawl, creep.
The Ugandan general might be a nut case, but he took the “guidance” letter exactly as it was intended – Harry does not speak for the King. And a bootlicker who is “sensitive” to the King’s opinion knows that the King is boss. The fact that Alderton had to make a phone call to clear this up, rather than the IG organizers asking WTF, shows that the responsibility for clean-up is Charles’, even if the push behind the letter was William.
Agree. This was a misstep from Charles, even if it was William pushing for the statement.
The thing about William pushing for the statement is that he wants a precedent for when he becomes King. Charles can take the heat for it now, but there will be an established way in place for how everyone is to deal with Harry even after Charles is gone. If William can make this stick, it will be stuck forever. We’ll see.
The responsibility for cleanup was Charles because he’s the one who released the letter and interfered even though most of us agree that it was at the behest of William the whiner or winer, either would apply. Harry questioning the release of the unnecessary letter was his right to do because it was obviously being seen by some as a sign that Charles doesn’t support Invictus Games and the military because he has a bad relationship with his youngest son. The letter never needed to be released, especially with the language used and Charles needed to be called out on it because he was making himself look bad and not Harry or the Invictus Games. This is obvious from Clive who sounds as if he sees himself as the king himself. One of the many problems with the royal family is not only do they think so highly of themselves but they tend to higher and associate with people who think so highly of themselves. Charles and William even married women who if you didn’t know any better, think that they are the born royals and their husbands are the subservient imbeciles they control.
I don’t know, If I were Invictus i would politely decline to have them rejoined and for two reasons, 1 listening to people fe Uganda the general is the president son and he seems unhinged. He could change his mind again tonight and 2. I would not want Clive A to have any pat on the back in any form from something i created to be in his debt the very man I know hates me . No thanks Invictus would be fine without Uganda . It’s sad for the soldiers but they can blame the bootlicking unhinged General for that . Charles only did this so people would stop calling him out on his lack of support for his only military in the Invictus and I think some heat and criticism on him is a good thing
Like I said when the story came out, the general wants public recognition of his loyalty to the king. He got it. The man is boot licking the king and isnt aware that clive alderton is finito. This guy purposely names him to feel like he’s somebody important enough to get a call from Alderton – meanwhile the dude is trying to repair his mistakes behind the scenes, because it appeared that the king wasn’t supporting veterans.
Looks like alderton is kicked out of charles office but into lazy Willie’s. This is the lazy heir’s CEO, the man who will control everything while he sits back, drinks beer and watches football when not zipping around, on his scooter.
I still can’t get over Clive’s full title & this guy’s use of it. 😏🙄
Harry’s goal is to help every wounded and injured serviceman and woman who needs help and he isn’t about exclusion. He wants to bring awareness to every country he can to help those who participate in IG and those who don’t for a better and more inclusive society for them. This isn’t about politics and or any specific country. The only people who look bad with this withdrawal was the general and Charles. They are the ones who put family relations at the forefront and above helping people who have served their countries, lost parts of themselves and deserve to be the main focus.
I wonder how that crow tastes. IG should not take them back for Birmingham. Maybe Korea. They can sit and observe.
Wow uh wee! where does one go with this. That Darn letter and its unintended consequences making people eat crow. i have to wonder was all the kerfuffle because it is being held in the UK what is going to happen when its being held in south korea is William going to pull the UK out of the Games because he is beefing with his brother?
This controversy lays bare an underlaying question in the conflict between the Palace and Harry. How much does the British Government, especially the Military, value the Invictus Games and the access a close relationship with British Prince who founded it provides? The Place would like the answer to be 0 value but the location of the next games proves that isn’t true
LOL what a sh-tshow.
Notice didn’t say he “supported” the IG, he said he had “no problem” with Uganda’s participation. Hope UK service members hear him, loud and clear.
I’m sure someone already said this but I think this is the main reason Harry and Meghan moved to the UK – to protect Invictus from William and other bad actors. He saw what happened to Sentebale when he wasn’t watching and he wants to protect Invictus.
Yup. That’s exactly why Harry’s back. I also think Harry and IG are taking the long view, in that, they wanted the UK to host the games again while Charles is King. The minute William becomes king Invictus will probably never host the games in the UK again.
Why do I feel someone will say “See Harry ‘The Wasp’ ( or the men in grey suits) is not all that bad he got Uganda to rejoin Invictus” …
King Charles still talking from his both side of his mouth. What does he mean? He was moved by this general‘s comment on Twitter anyway whatever this is I couldn’t care less because it was a non story to begin with.
Basically Chuck messed the bed and had to send the wasp out on cleanup duty. He still looks bad and even worse looks very much not smart since it appears the palace just wanted to torture Harry a bit and show him who is in charge, but instead Chuck and his staff have egg all over their faces. They also showed by Harry left with Meghan and will again when Charles is gone.
The statement from the Ugandan representative sounds like it was dictated or furnished BY Alderton, and now some “media” are reporting that the games were “rescued from a crisis” after an intervention by the dogs*t father. Nice face-saving spin, because people were definitely blaming Charles for the fiasco.
This is such a nudge-nudge wink-wink statement, including these bits:
“King Charles III was moved by General Kainerugaba’s sensitive consideration of the King’s opinion on the upcoming Invictus Games” – MOVED? He should have been horrified!
“King Charles III has no problem with Uganda’s participation in the Invictus Games” – The question is, why should he have needed to state that he “has no problem”?
I also noticed that the statement says “organised by Prince Harry” rather than “founded by Prince Harry”, because they still want to encourage the belief that the other two had something to do with the Games.
Of course the media would say that because their goal is to make Harry the villain or as if he needs the institution more than the institution needs him and Meghan. Anyone who knows anything would know that a foundation that has military and countries from all over the world participating in semi annual events and have created years long events and programs in their countries as a result of the IG isn’t suffering because of one country that only joined a few months ago and has an unhinged general leading them. IG would survive regardless of Uganda joining or not. No country is sitting there making decisions about their servicemen and women because of what Uganda does or doesn’t do.
Well I must admit to being quite concerned when the statement was released because I definitely read it as the King basically proclaiming that the Sussexes were persona non grata and saw the Uganda response as proof.
I’m now laughing my head off at the intended consequences coming to bite the palace in the butt, with Anderton having to intervene and give a tacit acknowledgment that the King supports Invictus and trying to imply that the Sussexes being purely private citizens is nonsense. The rota having to scramble to push the palace spin is delicious, especially with Chris Ship not toeing the line and reporting that the Ugandans confirmed that the letter DID cause the confusion in the first place.
I’m reminded of the meme “the dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed”
So it would seem Team Sussex’ decision to publicly lay the blame Charles actually worked. Because it was the nonsensical letter that caused that crazy general to react the way he did and the press dropped the story immediately when they realised that Uganda’s actions made Charles look bad.
Yeah the king didn’t want to look anti-disabled veterans so he had to say something
The BM certainly thinks it has hit pay dirt with this Uganda nonsense, but the withdrawal of a country that has been part of Invictus for two minutes by an a Trump-like general is not going to destabilize an organization like Invictus. This is the only time in IG history there has been this sort of nonsense and all due to Harry’s family’s machinations. Once Birmingham is over, I expect Invictus will continue its impactful work and planning to proceed smoothly and without drama. Drama is the nature of the Windsors, due to their insane view of themselves and their jealousy. Pettiness and jealousy is surely not new to royalty, but the Windsors, in the twenty-first century with social media has brought it to a whole new level.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 “Drama is the nature of the Windsors” — 100% – and I’d like to add they always like to pretend it’s everyone else stirring it up, not them.
The letter could have been clearer. In practical terms it means that because Harry is not acting as a representative of the King there is no need to bow or curtsy when greeting him and no need to address him as ‘Royal Highness’. It has been interpreted by the Daily Fail and others that the King does not support what Harry is doing. The King is now making clear that he does support what Harry is doing with Invictus and other charitable activities.
I’m finding it very enjoyable that Clive was the one who had to fix this mess. He must have been so irritated. … waspish, even.
Maybe he’ll be asked to stay on!
The Sussexes were right to cause a stink. It was Charles’ fault for seemingly not supporting the veterans. Apparently the General had the power to remove & reinstate they sending their veterans to the Invictus Games. Everything was straightforward in its appearance. So much so, the Palace had to eat crow. It would be hoove folks in stop doubting the Sussexes.
I’m still of the opinion that Charles was not behind the letter. He was either informed of it just before it went out, or was given an obscure gist of it before it went out then realised afterwards that the wording was awful and the facts were wrong, and began shouting at people. I can see Clive Alderton and William working to get every single one of William’s “wishes” into the letter, especially the HRH and “private persons” mess. But I mean, they even got the date from which the Sussexes had officially stepped back wrong. The point about going to BP for “guidance” was Alderton’s way of getting organisations to tip him off about the Sussexes’ future plans because BP was getting nothing from their team. Alderton sent it out in the Lord Chamberlain’s name (head of the household, when it would normally come from him, the king’s private secretary?) to give himself “clean hands”. You can see why it was rushed out with so many errors. Someone was really, really keen to get it into the public’s consciousness before a detailed reaction could be prepared.
But Charles is the king, and ought to have slapped it down the minute he was made aware of it. With so many reporters claiming to know that William was behind it, and after this Ugandan mess, I imagine that we’ll eventually hear that Charles was blindsided by the letter. Well, I guess we could say that he put out a fair few statements in the Queen’s name before she died, so he’s just getting a dose of his own medicine. And yes, I do believe that Alderton was ordered to fix the mess he and William had created. And that’s one of the reasons why Alderton is getting the press to claim that he played an instrumental role in “saving Invictus from a crisis”. Hence his FULL title and name being in that statement from the Ugandan representative.
But we can now see why Alderton let it be known that he was leaving but is hanging around until next year: to help William undermine the king and sabotage everything he is doing, and to continue to stick it to Harry (and Meghan) every chance he gets.
I now hope that problematic General Nutbag Son-of-the-President doesn’t travel with the Uganda team to Birmingham. He’ll spend all his time at the Games, trying to make the news.
This proves the comms team was absolutely right for calling out BP’s letter for the withdrawal. The Ugandan military confirmed this to ITV News. Buckingham Palace then had to fix the mess it created with the unnecessary letter! If I was Invictus I wouldn’t let Uganda back in. The leadership is unstable, and Muhoozi cannot be trusted not to Tweet more nonsense!