Royals accused of ‘cutting off their nose to spite their face’ after Charles snubs Harry

The Royal Family has been slammed for botching its approach to Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, according to a former royal courtier.

Charles had refused to send a working royal surrogate such as Prince Edward to attend the event (Image: Getty)

The Royal Family has refused to send any representative to a special ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games in London next week. Prince Harry is flying over to the UK for the anniversary date – but no working members of the Royal Family will attend the charity’s church service.

Sources suggested that Charles had refused to send a working royal surrogate such as Prince Edward to attend the event. A former palace courtier told the Daily Beast that the refusal is another example of “the royals cutting off their nose to spite their face”.

The former courtier said: “Invictus is exactly the kind of organization the royal family should be supporting. Charles has made it quite clear he is ready to be friendly and supportive to Harry in his capacity as a private person, as his dad, but he is not going to throw the weight of the institution behind Invictus again.”

Prince Harry is flying over to the UK for the anniversary date (Image: Getty)

They continued: “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 former courtier said Invictus would be the ideal starting point to build a bridge between Harry and the royals.

Harry will be flying alone to the UK to attend the Wednesday afternoon service at St. Paul’s Cathedral before privately meeting King Charles afterward.

Aides say it is “highly unlikely” that Harry will see his estranged brother Prince William or sister-in-law Princess Kate, who revealed her own cancer diagnosis in March.

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The visit comes as Harry’s team recently hired a UK-based PRs to help win back British support.

Meghan Markle will skip the event entirely and instead meet her husband in Nigeria in the days after his trip.

The couple are in Nigeria for talks with leaders of the West African nation about hosting future Invictus events for injured military personnel.

No official reason was given for Meghan skipping Britain, which she has only briefly visited three times since she and Harry departed for California in June 2020.