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As Prince Harry and Meghan prepare to fly to the Netherlands to open the Invictus Games, one royal expert has cast doubt over the future of the sporting event for injured servicemen and women.
Royal correspondent and biographer Robert Jobson tells our royal talk show Palace Confidential that while he’s a ‘big fan of the Invictus Games’, Harry’s position outside the Royal Family makes it harder to keep it going.
‘You need an awful lot of money to do it and you need an awful lot of goodwill from governments and that’s what he’s got so far. Whether he can continue that without being a full-time member of the Royal Family, I don’ know,’ he says. ‘It’s one thing that I think he got absolutely right and if he’d stayed a full-time royal it could have run on and run on and been brilliant. I’m not sure how much longer it’s got.’
Meanwhile The Mail on Sunday’s Kate Mansey points out the tricky situation the Duke of Sussex finds himself in simultaneously promoting the games, his Netflix deal and his commercial work for the firm BetterUp.
‘There is that question mark: If you’re being paid by Netflix to do a massive lucrative show, then you’re doing your charity work, [and] you’re being paid by the BetterUp organisation – I think that is difficult territory,’ she says. ‘There’s a lot of ethical questions that raises I suppose.’
Meanwhile the Royal Family are facing more questions over the future plans of the Queen after she cancelled two more important engagements this week. For Robert Jobson, it’s a sign that Charles needs to be named Prince Regent straight away.
‘I’m surprised he hasn’t been named to be honest,’ he says. ‘With all respect to Her Majesty, you can’t really be a Zoom monarch. There are roles you have to play. You have to be seen to be believed.
‘There’s enough scope within the Regency Act to make the Prince of Wales regent and I don’t think it would be a bad thing – we’ve had two Popes,’ he adds. ‘If it gets to be a situation a year down the line where we don’t see the Queen at all and she can’t do anything… None of us would want her to have to go through all of this at 96, 97.’
While Her Majesty has been able to carry out engagements over video conferencing, it does leave many wondering how the Firm can continue to function, says Kate Mansey.
‘If you can only see the Queen in mechanical form as she would say, on Zoom, you do wonder how this is going to go forward,’ she says.
Showing no sign of slowing down, however, is Princess Anne who returned this week from a jetlag-defying trip to Australia. The 71-year-old packed in 21 engagements over four days, flying overnight, landing at 5am and being on duty by 9.30am.
The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English points out that while Anne’s trips are not of the same significance or pomp-filled as those of the Queen, Charles and Camilla or the Cambridges, she believes that her relatives could do well to take note.
‘In light of recent debate over the way royal tours will be conducted in the future – particularly following the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s trip to the Caribbean – Anne’s trip will certainly be food for thought for the Royal Household,’ she says.
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