Chaos and confusion reign as Harry loses media battleTeam Sussex has had a bumpy last seven days in the UK, which was meant to focus on the Invictus Games.10 hrs agoUK

Prince Harry’s visit this week was meant to be the dramatic moment when his wife Meghan appeared before the UK public for the first time in almost four years.

That would focus the world’s attention on his passion project, the Invictus Games, which would be promoted in London and Birmingham with a series of media-friendly events.

Instead it turned into a series of unfortunate events – with crisis comms appearing to be hit by its own crisis – leaving behind a vapour trail of confusion.

Meghan made no public appearances during the week and Prince Harry’s good causes were overshadowed, with nightmare timing, by defeat in court against Associated Newspapers.

There was a private family reunion between the King and Queen and Prince Harry, Meghan and their children, Archie and Lilibet, on Friday.

But there were no pictures from this secretive get-together and the private moment at Highgrove hasn’t really shifted the narrative on what proved a difficult week for the visitors from California.

Team Sussex might already have expected a tough press for their trip to the UK and their supporters feel that the media’s treatment of Harry and Meghan is the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry.

But even before Harry’s visit had begun there was chaos.

A war of words, with acrimonious rival briefings, had taken place between Prince Harry’s team and Buckingham Palace over where he would be staying during his visit.

It emerged he had already been told he wasn’t staying there and Buckingham Palace, the establishment that Harry challenges, ended up looking more convincing.

But even worse followed, with such coincidentally bad timing that it would have suited a disaster movie.

At the very start of the first engagement about the Invictus Games, as Prince Harry had taken to the podium, word spread that he had lost all his claims against the publishers of the Daily Mail.

It was a much bigger defeat than many had anticipated, with the news buzzing around phones in the room as he began his speech.

Plans for an on-camera statement from Prince Harry that afternoon were hastily ditched. Press would no longer be able to go inside an event planned for the following day.

Harry – famously nicknamed Harold by his brother William – was having a bad week.

Two of the Invictus events had already been completely overshadowed, taking away attention from his work supporting injured military veterans.

And while Team Sussex stumbled, the Prince of Wales was enjoying a trouble-free visit to Hastings, a place famous for a battle where William defeated Harold.

The Duchess of Sussex is a polarising figure in the UK, provoking strong reactions among her supporters and her detractors. But there is no denying how much she fascinates the public and how much that can bring attention to causes.

A row over security meant that she had already been pulled from the start of Prince Harry’s week in the UK.

But there was still the possibility that Meghan would show up later in the week, as originally planned, particularly at the big Invictus showcase at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre.

On the evening before that big moment, which would bring together Invictus competitors and supporters along with the TV cameras, that appearance was ruled out too. Meghan wasn’t attending any public events in the UK.

That still left open the prospect of a private visit – and indeed on Friday afternoon Meghan was part of the meeting with the King, along with her husband and children, revealed in a Palace statement with only the barest of details.

What it also left was an impression of confusion and uncertainty. It was more will-they-won’t-they.

However at the Invictus event in Birmingham, in the NEC’s cavernous exhibition halls, you could see what was being missed.

Here was the Invictus community that is Prince Harry’s “second family”, people he has known and worked with for many years, a place of trust, where Harry was the hero.

He worked the room – and it was a very big room – with great patience, hugging and chatting, joking, posing for pictures, trying out a few of the sports events. His support was clearly deeply valued.

In a spirit of inclusion, he tried out a new British Sign Language sign that had been designed to say Invictus Games, when you imagine he might have wanted to try out some more direct sign language.

Prince Harry was a relaxed figure here, showing his respect for the competitors who had overcome so much adversity. They inspired him and in turn they showed him their affection.

If the Sussexes seem to travel with unnecessary drama, then what Harry’s visit left behind was a poignant sense of lost opportunity.

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