Prince Harry canceled a key fundraising event set to air on Amazon for the Invictus Games in L.A., and reports soon followed claiming it was nixed because he and wife Meghan Markle signed a deal (allegedly worth as much as $50-$150 million) with Netflix.
Harry created the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting event for injured servicemen and women, in 2014. Now, Harry and his legal teams are responding to a report in The Sunday Times about the canceled event, People reports.
An Invictus Games spokesman says in a statement, “The event was shelved because the primary revenue generator was ticket sales from a live concert in Los Angeles in the Spring of 2021. Given current global circumstances with COVID, the event needed to be reconceptualized. This was an independent decision made prior to a partnership with Netflix.”
“The suggestion or implication is that the duke has decided to choose his own financial benefit over raising money for veterans or the Invictus Games is egregious. Invictus is something that is his creation, there is so much that he believes in. It is one of the most important things to him,” a source close to the prince tells People.
“It is absolutely untrue that the Netflix deal is connected to the Invictus Games and Amazon proposal,” the source continues.
