No one from the royal family was in attendance last night at Prince Harry’s Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral celebrating 10 years of the Invictus Games—but it wasn’t because they weren’t invited.
People reports that Harry extended invitations to several royal family members—including his father, King Charles, his brother, Prince William, and his sister-in-law, Princess Kate—to the anniversary celebration in London, but none turned up. With Kate, it’s understandable—she hasn’t been seen publicly since her March 22 announcement that she is battling cancer. Yesterday William conducted investitures at Windsor Castle, and Charles hosted the first garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace, which was attended by Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Richard, and Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester. (According to People, “Garden parties have been held since the 1860s as a way for the monarch to recognize community members for their public service.” Just in case you were wondering.) And apparently, according to Page Six, the King ordered all working royals to attend the party—held just miles away from Harry’s service.
“King Charles ordered all working royals—including Princess Anne and Prince Edward, and excluding Prince William and Kate Middleton—to attend a garden party for 5,000 people at Buckingham Palace taking place at the same time [as Harry’s event],” veteran royal correspondent Tom Sykes of The Daily Beast reported.
Of the relationship between the King and Harry, “Charles has made it quite clear he ready to be friendly and supportive to Harry in his capacity as a private person, as his dad, but he’s not going to throw the weight of the institution behind Invictus again,” a former courtier told Sykes. “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.”
The Invictus Games were founded in 2014 as an international multi-sport event for wounded, sick, and injured servicemen and servicewomen, both those still actively serving and veterans. Arguably, it has become the work of Harry’s life and the project he is most passionate about outside of his family.
The former courtier said that many people think the royal family’s absence from Harry’s event is a “classic example” of them “cutting off their nose to spite their face”: “Invictus is clearly exactly the kind of organization the royal family should be supporting,” they said. “If a bridge is ever going to be built [between Harry and the royal family], Invictus is the bridgehead to build it from, and they should get on and do it.”
Though no members of the royal family were present at the Service of Thanksgiving (and Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, is also not in the U.K.), the siblings of Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, came out last night to support their nephew and ensure that he would have family on site, after all.
