Prince Harry’s new Invictus doco drops on Netflix rival
A surprise new Invictus Games show from the Duke of Sussex has started streaming despite his Netflix deal worth $154 million.
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Prince Harry’s new Invictus Games documentary has started screening on streaming channel Hulu despite the controversial royal having a Netflix deal worth $154 million.
The unannounced one-off show, in which the youngest son of King Charles talks about his family and his devotion to his passion project, has begun streaming on the Disney-owned platform.
The show, called Prince Harry’s Mission: Life, Family And The Invictus Games, is based on interviews given by the royal to ABC News during the Winter Invictus Games’ One Year to Go event in Whistler, Canada, earlier this month.
The documentary replays an interview with ABC News reporter Will Reeve in which Prince Harry said that he quickly made plans to see his father as soon as he learned that the King had been diagnosed with cancer.
He said: “I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could. Look, I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.”
It comes as Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle have just a year to see out the end of their Netflix deal.
The Daily Mail reported that a senior source at Netflix said bosses at the streaming platform had been taken by surprise by the new doco on Hulu.
TRUMP’S STERN WARNING FOR PRINCE HARRY
Former US president and current presidential hopeful Donald Trump has warned that Prince Harry will be “on his own” if he is re-elected as president in 2024 after criticising the Duke of Sussex’s “unforgivable” betrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.
While speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland on Saturday, Trump criticised US president Joe Biden’s administration for being “too gracious” to the Sussexes ever since Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle moved to California in 2020.
“I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me,” the former president told The Express.
When asked about the White House’s approach to the Sussexes, Trump said, “I think they have been too gracious to him after what he has done.”
Mr Trump’s comments come as Prince Harry’s US immigration status has become embroiled in a legal battle by the Heritage Foundation, which has argued that the 39-year-old royal could not have legally entered the US because he admitted to taking illegal drugs in his memoir.
Admissions of drug abuse can be a stumbling block for non-Americans applying for US residency.
In Spare, Prince Harry wrote that he had taken cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms, noting that the cocaine “didn’t do anything for me,” but “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”
But US lawyers representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are arguing the royal may have fabricated the drug use to boost sales of the book.
“The book isn’t sworn testimony or proof,” John Bardo told the Washington, D.C. court, according to The Telegraph.
“Saying something in a book doesn’t necessarily make it true.”
It comes as the Heritage Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security after failing to obtain the prince’s visa application.
DHS lawyers argue that releasing the paperwork, which would have asked Harry if he had prior drug use, would be “an unwarranted invasion of Prince Harry’s privacy.”
“The records are particularly sensitive because releasing them, even in part, would reveal Prince Harry’s status in the United States, which Prince Harry has not disclosed,” the lawyers argued, according to The Telegraph.
“Courts consistently hold that a person’s visa or immigration status is private, personal information exempt from disclosure.”
Bardo said it was “certainly possible” the prince entered under a diplomat’s visa.
“He’s still a member of the British royal family and has the title Duke of Sussex … he’s still a government official in the UK by his birth and title,” he told the court.