What to Make of Prince Harry's Appearance at the Invictus Games 10th Anniversary in London
He showed his commitment to helping military veterans while further exposing the degree of his estrangement from the royal family
The message in the press this week could not have been more stark: “Prince Harry attends Invictus Games service, but King has no time for him,” wrote The Times. Each media report recounted that seventy-five-year-old Charles III— who only recently ventured out on public engagements even as he continues treatment for cancer—appeared at the first Buckingham Palace garden party of the season on Wednesday, May 8th. The 8,000 guests were invited to reward their public service, and the King was accompanied by Queen Camilla, his sister Princess Anne, and his brother, Prince Edward. For the King, it was a symbolic demonstration of his return to the normal routines of a monarch three months after he was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer. Prince William, meanwhile, was doing engagements at Windsor Castle and in Cornwall.
Harry’s proudest and most consequential achievement
Two miles away from Buckingham Palace (as the press pointedly mentioned) thirty-nine-year-old Harry was at St. Paul’s Cathedral for a service commemorating the Invictus Games he created a decade ago to help injured military veterans with their recovery and rehabilitation through high-level sports competition. No senior members of the royal family were on hand to celebrate Harry’s proudest and most consequential achievement. Nor for that matter—curiously, since the United States has always fielded the largest team—was Harry’s American wife, Meghan Markle, who managed to meet him at Heathrow airport after he had left London. They were catching a flight to Nigeria, where they were embarking on a self-styled royal tour. Harry did have the reassuring presence in St. Paul’s of his late mother’s sister and brother, Lady Jane Fellowes and Earl Spencer, and several of his Spencer nieces and nephews.
How should we interpret this latest wrinkle in what is arguably the world’s most famous family feud? I thought it would be useful first to look behind the scenes at what Harry did in London this week. It’s also worth recalling what I learned about Harry’s relationship with his family when the Invictus Games began, which doesn’t exactly square with Harry’s caustic version of events in his now infamous memoir Spare, published in early 2023, that the royal family regards as a cruel betrayal.
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