How Prince Harry's Invictus Games Reportedly Marked The First Signs Of Trouble With William

The Invictus Games has always given Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, a major sense of pride. He founded the multi-sport event back in 2014 for wounded and injured veterans. Speaking about the games, Harry told People in a February 2024 interview, "To me, it means the world because what it does is it gives the participants a real feeling like we matter, that what we're doing and the sacrifices we made in our career is important." Because the Invictus Games has become such a massive success, Harry's brother William, the Prince of Wales, has a reason to be jealous of it, sparking more signs of trouble between him and Harry. That's mostly because of all the attention that his little brother has gotten from the press and the international veteran community.

Then again, William has also reportedly been jealous of other things in his little brother's life. Harry revealed in his tell-all book "Spare," that the two royal brothers had a fight over charity work in Africa, with the future king of England claiming that the continent was "his thing" and that the two of them almost "came to blows" over it. William supposedly said, "Rhinos, elephants, that's mine!"

With rhinos probably not wanting to be part of any royal feud, William still feels envious of his brother's number one project.

According to People, British journalist and royal expert Robert Jobson believes Prince William might be jealous over all the attention that Prince Harry has gotten for the highly successful Invictus Games. Explaining how Harry has managed to make the games the financial success it has been thanks to all of the support he's gotten, Jobson said that William might not only be surprised by it all, but a little envious, too. During the ABC News special "Prince Harry's Mission: Life, Family and Invictus Games," he said, "I think there was a degree of jealousy about how well it had gone. I do think that William was surprised how much this had been such a success and how much money was being thrown into it and how many governments were getting involved."

And while William might have a reason to be jealous about it now, it was not too long ago that he was against the idea. After Harry pitched the Invictus Games to their Royal Foundation Board in 2013, William was supposedly "sorely irritated by it," according to Harry's memoir "Spare." He thought that Harry's idea for the games would cost more money than what the royals could afford to spend at the time.

Prince Harry suggested in "Spare" that one of the reasons why Prince William was against the Invictus Games might have also had something to do with the sibling rivalry he was feeling at the time. The Duke of Sussex wrote in his memoir that William was none too pleased when Harry pitched the idea to the Royal Foundation Board without talking to him about it first. Harry wrote, "He wished I'd run all this by him first ... He complained that I'd be using up all the funds in the Royal Foundation. That's absurd, I spluttered. I was told only a half-million-pound grant would be needed to get the games going."
No one in the royal family has spoken about or attended the Invictus Games since Prince Harry stepped down from his royal duties in 2019, and royal commentator Victoria Murphy further noted in the ABC News special that the games are "not under the umbrella of organizations that the royal family officially are part of."