Last week, Prince Harry went solo (no Meghan) for the Invictus Games One Year to Go events in Birmingham, England. Those events followed several days of the Windsors going out of their way to disrupt and humiliate Harry’s visit. He still turned up in Birmingham with a smile on his face, even bringing his ginger sunshine to a lovely and impromptu interview with Alison Hammond on the ground at the Invictus event. The Windsors completely ignored the OYTG events and did not mark them in any way, even on social media. That’s how mad they all are about Invictus specifically. For years now, the Windsors and their media allies have been campaigning to “take over” Invictus and somehow get Harry kicked off of the organization he founded. The Mail’s Richard Eden has openly suggested that Invictus needs “another royal patron.” Tom Sykes has been platforming unhinged “sources” discussing the need to “make some decisions” about removing Harry as patron. Well, these people are still trying.
Prince Harry’s trip to the U.K. was bumpy to say the least, but ongoing drama surrounding him begs the question—Is Prince Harry the Invictus Games? The Duke of Sussex was in the U.K. last week to raise £25 million from corporates and private sponsors for the 2027 Birmingham Invictus Games; however, issues arose when it was revealed that Harry’s invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace was rescinded days before he arrived.
His spokesperson said the offer was “withdrawn” after Harry accepted the palace’s invitation on July 4, according to People Magazine. During his trip, Harry suffered a significant legal loss in his privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail in what he called “a complete and obvious whitewash.” A judge ruled that Harry, as well as Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, the other claimants in the case, did not prove Associated Newspapers engaged in illegal information gathering and threw out the case, Deadline reported.
The legal setback may have hurt Harry’s fundraising chances, according to Daily Beast royal editor Tom Sykes.
“I think Invictus are the real losers in this, and I think right-thinking person would wish only the greatest of success to a charity that tries to help wounded veterans,” Sykes told NewsNation’s Paula Froelich.
“I think they’re going to have to accept that having Harry as their patron, as their spokesman, as the face of the organization is unhelpful,” he added.
First of all, Harry wasn’t in Birmingham to find sponsors, he was there for the OYTG events, which everyone knew and covered. Second of all, Invictus has been announcing partnerships and sponsorships at a steady clip for months. Just in the past three months, they’ve announced partnerships with ATCO (a Canadian company), Deloitte and Jaguar Land Rover/Defender. All for an Invictus Games which is one year away!
Given the particular royal commentators who are beating the “Harry must leave Invictus” drum, it’s clear that Prince William in particular is pushing this narrative. William wants to claim credit for Harry’s work and “take over” Invictus. The problem is that William is too lazy to support the patronages he already has, and I actually think William only wants to become “patron of Invictus” so he can destroy it and destroy Harry’s legacy, just like he did with Sentebale.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Duke of Sussex speaking, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of Sussex takes part in a session of Pickleball, one of the two new sports for the Invictus Games, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 31 Dec 1903 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of Sussex takes part in a session of Laser Run, one of the two new sports for the Invictus Games, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of Sussex takes part in a session of Wheelchair Rugby, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of Sussex takes part in a session of Wheelchair Rugby, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham. Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham. Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- The Duke of Sussex speaking, during a visit to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – the primary venue for the 2027 Invictus Games – as part of the One Year to Go celebrations for the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince Harry Duke of Sussex attending the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027 and attends various demonstrations at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Featuring: Prince Harry Duke of Sussex Where: Birmingham, United Kingdom When: 10 Jul 2026 Credit: Mischa Schoemaker/Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
Literally everything else on the planet is collateral damage to Charles and William and their insane jealousy. Talk about loose cannons. I always see this story through the lens of a dysfunctional workplace: say you have a colleague who is bright, motivated, passionate, and serious. Do you undermine that person? Or do you understand they raise the bar, they up the ante, and if you back them up, they represent an asset to the whole team?
This infuriates me. Syko is such a weirdo.
The IG competitors love Harry because he’s one of them — he’s been in actual combat and he understands their trauma and challenges. William could never fill Harry’s shoes. And of course, William is too lazy to even try.
Invictus wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for Harry, but sure, Tom, go off.
Exactly! Harry is not the patron, he’s the FOUNDER. Invictus is the most vibrant, helpful, and visible organization any of the modern royals have ever created. They desperately want to claim it.
Willy is briefing before his holiday break to the unhinged TS is predictable.. Willy will probably be rage briefing for the rest of the summer though TS targeting Prince Harry and Invictus, it truly makes Willy look like a man who is weak and who has no moral character to be constantly rage briefing like a rat hiding in the shadows.
Perhaps Harry should threaten to publish the other 400 pages left over from Spare if William tries to have him removed from Invictus. This matters to Harry and William would wreck it.
The Brits suffer from the same delusions of exceptionalism that Americans do. Invictus is a global event. It’s not about Britain and British feelings. Harry’s role isn’t royal patron.
It something that comes with Empire. However, the British empire is long gone and we are watching the American empire crumble in real time. Sadly, the delusions of exceptionalism remains long after the empire is gone. During the Brexit negotiations with the EU the British politicans and civil servants acted as if Britain was still an empire, wanting the benefits of a membership without being a member and contribute to the whole – and they really squandered any goodwill they had left with the EU and eventually got the worst deal: a hard Brexit.
I got a good laugh out of this headline. Thank you.
Harry isn’t just the patron, he is also the founder and creator. Sykes is absolutely delusional and incompetent at this point.
I am almost amused but shading towards angry at this ridiculous statement.
Prince Harry is known globally as the patron/founder of Invictus and this is why it keeps growing. The veterans love Prince Harry and the Invictus Foundation clearly recognizes his value and completely supports him. Instead of supporting the veterans, they wish to destroy their support base. William and those gutter rats are sick.
What in the world? It doesn’t even make sense. Go focus on the actual royals and stop acting like Harry needs to leave everything to William.
Also, still disagree William had anything to do with Sentabale. Sophie is a grifter based on everything. She did that mess on her own. I think she thought she would gain favor by throwing Meghan and Harry under the bus since she rightfully reads articles about them and how much the DM and RR hate them. She just miscalculated when the whole Board quit and Prince Sessio did too.
William was absolutely behind sophie and Ian Rawlinson destroying sentebale. Sophie even got a little ribbon for it.
No she didn’t. And it made zero sense for William to do this to take over something his brother and another Prince set up. You all love to act like that woman had zero agency to just be awful and based on how she got the job, it sounds like this is what she and her brother do.
@ChillinginDC – Sophie had total agency, but it makes zero sense to me that a professional grifter would blow up her carefully crafted reputation for such a small payout. And it’s suspicious that the board shake-up ended with William’s former aide and close advisor being appointed to the new board by Sophie. As for what makes sense to William – the RF have done countless things that make sense to them, but not to an outside, non-royal, observer. I can’t imagine William would want to take over Sentebale because history shows he doesn’t even want to be responsible for his own projects. But I can imagine him taking advantage of an opportunity to strike at Harry, because his past actions show that to be possible.
If half the effort was put into doing investigative journalism into actual crimes, that they put into things that are inconsequential about Harry and Meghan, these people would have multiple Pulitzer’s.
Why write a story like this and publish it literally right after they secure additional sponsorships? It was silly when they were writing it before, but it’s even sillier knowing about the announcement from Land Rover/Jaguar. They’re trying to manifest failure.
Which is diabolical, because regardless of how much you hate Harry, Invictus participants have been very clear about how important participation in these games has been to them. How it is pulled some of them out of the depths of despair, they’ve interviewed their kids and their spouses who have raved about how their entire being has changed. And, because William thinks everything is supposed to come to him with no work, and because the Royal media ecosystem can’t handle that they were wrong about who the” dim” one was, eff the vets? Despicable.
Also- every time I see that photo of Harry, the gun owner in me just smiles at his form. He’s not playing games.
But – Harry isn’t actually the “Royal Patron”, is he? He’s the founder. The fact that he’s royal is just happenstance, no?
It’s pretty galling that they act as though they (BRF) can simply remove him from his organization, one that has no actual tie to the the BRF?
You are correct Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games he supports the international veterans games he created but I don’t think he was ever a patron, royal or otherwise.
Oh please. The delusion.
You can tell these people are just looking to punish Harry at any turn and any way possible. All of the executives and people involved with Invictus love and respect Harry.
I even saw that wildebeast Nana on gbspews suggesting that ‘William should take it off him’ for no real reason. These people have a deep problem of looking for vengeance on Harry. Either for leaving, telling his story, being happy in America or still being married to Meghan which they were so sure he wouldn’t be. They don’t like that he takes his hits and gets back up refusing to be humbled and crawling back. So they keep looking for ways to punish him enough.
William already has his Earthshot and his Homewards thing. If you want to know just how little interest and regard these people have for William and his flops look how often they suggest HE should have Invictus.
Exactly. They aren’t even trying to unduly hype up Earthshot, they just don’t pay attention to it at all. You would think that they would try to oversell it, and constantly write over the top articles about the winners or things like that. They don’t mention them at all, all of their attention is focused on Invictus, the people working with Invictus, the people on the board for Invictus, the sponsorships for Invictus.
If it was only about hyping up william, I think that they would just do what they normally do which is to write hagiographies about how fantastic even the most normal and minuscule things they do are, but they know no one even cares so they don’t even bother with that. It’s just all Harry, all the time.
I can’t stop laughing. Just look at all of Harry’s activity in just a few short days – and then imagine William…
Which working royal is going to events around the world for Invictus to places like Ukraine and Uganda? Half the working roysls are over 70. William won’t support UK Football team when they play in Europe let alone across the Atlantic.
Invictus isn’t a royal patronage any more. Let the Brits and the psycho rota boycott it at their own peril.
They have no interest in continuing the work, only in taking over and destroying it—one need look no further than the example of the Sentebale organization. They do not care that nearly 400 HIV-positive children under the foundation’s care are being denied the medication that prevents the virus from progressing to AIDS, nor that without this care, these children will die. Their only concern is a desire to spite Harry.
The global media ought to be SCREAMING about this non-stop; instead, they prefer to focus on Kate’s dress—copied from another woman whose look she practically tore right off her back at Wimbledon—or on AI-generated images of the WK holding hands.
He isn’t the patron. He is the founder.
And Sykes is a nut.
It’s unhelpful to the manufactured narrative Sykes and all the others haters put out there. They tried so hard to derail this trip but Harry went out there and promoted the games and generated excitement for it. The train is cooI, there’s fun new games, they got LandRover on board as another sponsor. I think they’ll do another excellent games next year and that’s obvious for everyone to see. The press and royals tried to create this chaos but Harry and the IG team kept it moving. They know they’ll be dealing with so much being thrown at them for the next year by the UK press, the palace and who knows what else. Sykes is just a mosquito buzzing in one’s ear.
Willie Boy is overplaying his hand on this one. Harry is the founder of Invictus and everyone sees him as such. I have seen and heard MANY participants and sponsors say “Harry is one of us.” Sykes is way out of line and out of touch on this one. The people involved in Invictus LOVE Harry. I don’t believe the same sentiments will be extended to William because he didn’t serve in active combat. I watched some show where a caller referred to the other royals as wearing “chocolate medals”. That says a lot.
As I have written before, Harry needs to regroup and think of what is best for the organization. He needs to stay far away from the family drama. If I were consulting Harry regarding Invictus, I would make sure he understood that he needs to stop falling into the family drama trap. When he visits the UK, he needs to make clear that his travels are for business, not pleasure, and that family visits are not on the calendar. Family visits, if scheduled will be during family vacations. As for Meghan, I would just tell them that she has no plans to attend and shut down all speculation.
This is sound advice. Even though the press always makes it about the Royal family, he needs to start nipping it in the bud and keep it strictly business snd say nothing about personal stuff. There was no drama about whatever was happening at Althorp so he needs to keep his family out of his announcements. Whether or not Meghan’s there, wouldn’t say anything about her unless it’s really necessary.
How absurd.
We could see this coming from space that Will and co want to strip Harry of IG and any UK based charities. Will wants Harry and Meghan to go live in a cave and vanish forever from public consciousness. Unfortunately despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Harry to break him, he kept calm and carried on beautifully last week for IG and other charities. He relished being with his people at various; a mutual and heartwarming exchange of positivity and energy. He promoted and engaged and was joyful and uplifting. He delivered top level quality and publicity for IG. Prince Edward, a couple of weeks training for the marines?, wouldn’t really have the same cache and appeal and Will won’t do either!!
Too late, William – Charles invited them to tea.
Tom Syko is ridiculous. These people are so desperate for Harry to lose all his charities. Maybe they believe that if that happens he return to royal life.
Hmm, I wonder if Sykes or Eden had any particular royal in mind to simply “take over” the leadership of the organization Harry founded? I’ll have to think hard about that one. It could be anyone! 😂
Notwithstanding how ridiculous it is to suggest that Invictus would ever willingly replace Harry, but it’s several days of events both before and during the actual event and it has a truly global reach. In other words, it requires someone who will attend several events all over the world, including preceding celebrations. Someone who will attend every day of the games and pitch in to promote them. Someone who can meet with world leaders, military brass, veterans, and their families with equal ease and charm.
It’s a tall order, but Harry (and now Meghan, at least when the host country deems it fit to provide proper security)
does it so well.
William just likes to take projects from Harry but does nothing with the organisations. This list is growing.
– Remember : SHOUT the text messaging mental health project. After Harry and Meghan left and William took over and someone accused it of selling these young peoples health info. It was quickly hushed up and now the website does not mention the royals.
– The Quen’s Commonwealth Trust—no royal is spearheading this. Why didn’t they put Zara and Mike in chaege?
-Sentabale – A 20 year old organisation was tragically was destroyed by William. Maybe because it was named after his mother.
It’s this kind of brown-nosing press coverage that encourages the RF to remain in its unevolved, retrograde state and refuse to adapt to the 21st century.