Prince Harry’s documentary Invictus Games has been released on Hulu – in which the Duke of Sussex talks about his family and how important the games are to him.
In news that appears to be a slap in the face for rival streamer Netflix, where it has a five-year deal, an unannounced one-off show began streaming on their Disney-owned rivals on Sunday.
It’s called Prince Harry’s Mission: Life, Family and the Invictus Games and is based on interviews Harry gave to ABC News while in Whistler, Canada to promote the games.
The one-episode show is an “ABC News special.” It includes his reflection, ‘I love my family’, taken on February 16 and Harry revealing he was happy to have flown to King Charles’ side after his cancer diagnosis.
A senior source at Netflix said he and his wife Meghan are still under contract with them, but seemed surprised by the news.
An unannounced one-off ‘special’ featuring Prince Harry began streaming on Hulu on Sunday – an apparent slap in the face to rival streamer Netflix, where he has a five-year contract
The show, called Prince Harry’s Mission: Life, Family and the Invictus Games, is based on interviews Harry gave to ABC News while in Whistler, Canada to promote the games. The couple is pictured on February 14, 2024
Netflix representatives have been contacted for comment.
A senior TV news producer tells me that Harry must have been aware of the usefulness of the interview and had to sign a release form to allow ABC to turn it into a documentary for Hulu.
Speculation about the status of Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the streamer has reached boiling point after they relaunched their business and charity projects under a new ‘Sussex.com’ website, but Netflix was not mentioned by name in the Archewell section productions.
Sources have told this newspaper that there is dissatisfaction on both sides over the Netflix deal signed at the end of 2020.
Although reportedly worth $100 million, in reality the streamer would simply cover the overhead costs of the Archewell production company to the tune of around $3 million, with further revenue dependent on the pair delivering projects.
So far they have delivered the blockbuster Harry & Meghan tell all, plus a documentary about Invictus and his work, Heart of Invictus.
In the documentary, Prince Harry talks about his family and how important the Invictus Games are to him
A senior source at Netflix said he and his wife Meghan remain under contract with them
A film adaptation of the romantic novel Meet Me At The Lake is also in the works – although there is no script yet and it is not clear whether the couple have found a writer yet.
Other projects, including a TV show and another documentary, were in the “early early stages” of development earlier this month, according to director Bela Bejaria.
It’s thought he and Meghan have only received about $20 million from the streamer so far, all told, with one source close to the relationship saying the Netflix deal is essentially a dead duck.
Earlier this month, Harry and Meghan traveled to Whistler, Canada, where the 2023 Invictus Games for wounded service members will be held.
In an interview with Will Reeve for ABC News, which is repeated in the Hulu special, Harry said he quickly made plans to see his father as soon as he learned the king had cancer.
He said: ‘I jumped on the plane and went to him as quickly as I could. Look, I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and visit him and spend time with him, I’m grateful for that.”
Sources say there is dissatisfaction on both sides over the Netflix deal, which was signed in late 2020
Although reportedly worth $100 million, the streamer would simply cover the overhead costs of production company Archewell to the tune of approximately $3 million, with further revenue dependent on the pair delivering projects.
Harry, 39, declined to comment further on his father’s diagnosis, adding that he hopes to see Charles again soon, saying: ‘I have other trips planned that will take me around Britain, or back to Great Britain -Britain, and so I ‘I’ll just drop by and see as much of my family as possible.’
The duke had not seen his 75-year-old father since the coronation last May. The visit lasted about half an hour before King Charles and Queen Camilla headed to Sandringham, in Norfolk. Harry stayed overnight in a hotel before heading to California, where he now lives.
When asked about the possibility that Charles’ illness would have a unifying effect on his own family, Harry replied, “Yes, I’m sure,” and reflected on what he had seen firsthand among the families of Invictus athletes.
“In all these families I see it every day, again, the power of the family unit coming together,” Harry said. “So yeah, I think any disease, any illness, brings families together. I see it again and again and that makes me very happy.’
The Invictus Games were launched in 2014. They are modeled after the Warrior Games, an annual event organized by the US Department of Defense, which Harry attended in 2013.
The first competitions were in London in 2014 and have since taken place in Orlando, Toronto, Sydney, Düsseldorf and The Hague.
He spoke to the ABC team at the One Year to Go events. It will be the first time that the competition also includes winter sports.
In addition to traditional sports such as indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby, the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler include alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.
More than 500 competitors from more than twenty countries are expected to compete during the Games, which will be held from February 8 to 16, 2025.