Prince Harry and Meghan cheer as Team UK walks onto Invictus Games opening ceremony stage
Harry and Meghan cheered and clapped for the United Kingdom’s team as the
competitors walked onto the stage. The duke noticed the camera on him and smiled
and waved.
Saturday 8 February 2025 22:32, UK
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex cheered and clapped as the United Kingdom’s team
walked onto the stage for the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games.
Harry [https://news.sky.com/topic/prince-harry-5826] and Meghan
[https://news.sky.com/topic/meghan-markle-6633] arrived in Vancouver on Saturday
for the seventh edition of the games that were established by Prince Harry in
2014.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Nelly Furtado and Katy Perry are all due to perform at
the opening event.
The president of Boeing International (which is presenting the games), Brendan
Nelson, told the ceremony audience: “Prince Harry has given duty, courage, hope
and love a name. Invictus.”
As Mr Nelson told Prince Harry, “we are proud of you”, the Duchess of Sussex
clapped and smiled at her husband, touching his face affectionately.
On her Instagram story earlier on Saturday, she shared a video as she posed
alongside her husband for a picture with Team USA. She also posted a video where
she hugged a woman in a Team Canada kit.
Meghan’s attendance is understood to underscore her support for her husband and
the mission of Invictus, which brings together more than 500 competitors from 23
nations.
It is the first time the games will include winter sports.
British veterans and serving personnel who were injured during service departed
for Canada earlier this week to take part in the games. The 62 competitors are
all veterans and serving personnel who sustained life-changing injuries or
illnesses during their time in the UK Armed Forces.
The games were last held in Dusseldorf in 2023. Invictus 2027 will be held in
Birmingham, returning to the UK for the first time since its inception, when the
first games were held in London.
The games were inspired after Prince Harry took a trip to the Warrior Games in
2013, where he saw how sport could aid injured service personnel in their
recoveries.
At the time, Harry worked in partnership with his then charity The Royal
Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, to deliver the
games alongside the Ministry of Defence. The first games, held in London’s Queen
Elizabeth Olympic Park, brought together 400 competitors from 13 nations around
the world
The name of the games, Invictus, means ‘unconquered’.
For Meghan and Harry, it has been the backdrop to some key moments in their
lives. The couple famously appeared in public together for the first time at the
Toronto Invictus Games in 2017, pictured hand in hand at a wheelchair tennis
event.
They attended the 2018 Invictus Games just five days after announcing they were
expecting their first child.
Then, just days after their son Archie was born, Prince Harry travelled to the
Netherlands to promote the 2020 Invictus Games, which had been due to take place
at the Hague.
These games were later delayed to 2022 due to the COVID pandemic, but during
this initial visit he was gifted an Invictus-themed onesie by Princess Margriet.
Meghan has a number of upcoming projects, including a Netflix series With Love,
Meghan, which will now be released on 4 March, after being delayed due to the
wildfires in LA
[https://news.sky.com/story/duchess-of-sussex-delays-release-of-netflix-series-due-to-la-fires-13287653].