Who Has Been Getting Comments Critical of Invictus Deleted off My Substack?

Welcome to the free Sunday Newsletter, with an added dose of intrigue!

The biographer Tom Bower whose new biography of Harry and Meghan, Betrayal, is being serialized by the Times and The Sunday Times this week, has previously described his method as “find the victims.”

In the case of today’s extract this seems to mean the chairwoman of the children’s AIDS charity Sentebale, Sophie Chandauka, who got into a massive fight with Harry last year and accused him of misogyny and racism.

Bower goes back over Sentebale’s early difficulties. “In 2008, it emerged that just £84,000 of the £1.15 million raised through events, including a concert in memory of Diana and a TV documentary featuring Harry, had been spent on helping orphans with Aids. The charity’s first director had been paid £100,000 a year, plus the perks of a four-bedroom villa with staff and a private education for his three children.”

In 2021, Harry contributed £1.1 million from the profits of his memoir, Spare, but, Bower says, “making the charity dependent on the book disturbed pro-royalist donors.”

After conducting some research, Chandauka told Harry: “People don’t want to be associated with your Netflix shows and especially not with Meghan.”

Harry apparently replied that Johnny Depp was still box office despite his battles with Amber Heard.

Bower claims that by this time, two directors based in London were earning £350,000.

Chandauka allegedly told Harry: “We need American corporates who want to be associated with your mission, not you personally. They don’t want your victimhood. We’ve got to pitch it right for the young philanthropists. It can’t be Africans with a begging bowl.”

After visiting the charity for the first time in four years in October 2024, Harry tried to bringing Sentebale back under his control by firing Chandauka.

He failed and in March 2025 Harry resigned from Sentebale, along with his co-founder Prince Seeiso and the board of trustees.

On Saturday, Prince Harry’s office described as “disgusting” claims made in an extract published in The London Times which questioned aspects of the Invictus Games and the suitability of some competitors with PTSD at the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver.

In the extract serialised by The Times, Bower describes the atmosphere at one wheelchair basketball match as subdued, claiming that only 43 paying spectators attended and that about 100 people were brought in by organisers and “corralled” around Prince Harry and Meghan for photos when they arrived.

Bower also describes a match in which an eight-man Nigerian team was roundly defeated by what he characterised as a group of “professionally trained Americans.” According to Bower’s account, two members of the Nigerian side had lost a leg while the American players were said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder rather than physical injuries. He claims that after the game the American team wheeled themselves into a private area and then stood up and walked away, saying none appeared to have visible physical injuries.

Representatives for Prince Harry criticised the claims, saying the book misrepresents the purpose of the Invictus Games and perpetuates misunderstanding about invisible injuries such as PTSD. The Invictus Games were founded by Harry in 2014 specifically to support wounded, injured and sick service personnel, including those with psychological trauma rather than visible physical injuries.

A spokesperson for the Invictus Games Foundation said: “It is disappointing to see The Times give prominence to commentary that appears driven by a long-established agenda rather than a genuine understanding of the Invictus Games and the community it supports. The Foundation exists to support the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans from around the world.

“Attempts to question the legitimacy of competitors or diminish the experiences of those living with both physical injuries and invisible wounds such as PTSD are deeply disrespectful to the men and women the Games were created for. The focus should remain where it belongs - on the courage, recovery and camaraderie of those who have served.”

There is a bizarre coda to this story. One of my Substack subscribers—a prized founder member no less—wrote a lengthy comment about their sub-optimal, first-hand experience as a guest at an earlier edition of the Invictus Games. I thanked the writer, harri, who was basically roped into being a seat filler, for their post, which I mentioned was a great example of the added value the comments section brings to our little club/corner of the internet.

As I was writing this Newsletter, I went back to find it to paste it in and discovered, to my surprise and outrage, that the note had been deleted.

It was a valuable first hand account and very far from defamatory, and I’m struggling to think a) who might have wanted it taken down and b) who would have the power and the contacts to get through to Substack to have it removed. I can’t believe it triggered any automatic red flags as it was, as 99% of my community here are, totally respectful and polite.

I’ve contacted Substack and I intend to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks for your support. I don’t take it lightly.

Oh, one other thing. I’m recording the first episode of my new podcast The Royalist with The Daily Beast on Tuesday and it will be going live on my YouTube channel at 5pm Eastern, and then hits audio platforms like Spotify the next day. I’m obviously extremely nervous it is going to land like a tree falling unheard in a distant forest.

I’ll have a trailer etc to share here tomorrow to try and counter that possibility!