Prince Harry to Return to UK for Invictus Games Anniversary Celebration

 
Prince Harry will return to the United Kingdom in May to celebrate a milestone anniversary of the Invictus Games, the biennial sporting competition he founded a decade ago.

The Duke of Sussex will give a reading at a ceremony at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on May 8, to mark 10 years of the Invictus Games and its foundation, it announced on Sunday.

The last time the prince was back in his home country was in February, on a swift visit after his father King Charles’ cancer diagnosis was announced

Harry spoke of that diagnosis later than month, telling ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he “jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could.”

“I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go see and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that,” he added.

It was not immediately clear if the prince will meet with his relatives during the trip next month.

The duke and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex relocated to the United States in 2020. In the years since, Harry, 39, has made several fleeting trips back to the UK, most notably attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and his father’s coronation last year.

It is also not yet clear whether Meghan would accompany her husband to the Invictus celebration. But it could be challenging for the mom-of-two as the event at St. Paul’s falls two days after Prince Archie’s fifth birthday on May 6.

Buckingham Palace announced Charles, who is still undergoing treatment, is set to return to public-facing duties on Tuesday. His medical team were said to have been “sufficiently pleased” with his progress and “remain positive” at his recovery.

His diary will be managed carefully with decisions about which events he’ll take on made closer to the time in consultation with his doctors. The King will not carry out a full summer program, the palace said, but he will welcome Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako for a state visit in June.

The Invictus Games were established by Prince Harry after his deployment in Afghanistan. They aim to support recovery for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans, according to the foundation’s website.

The next Invictus Games will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in Canada in February 2025. More than 500 competitors from over 20 nations will compete in adaptive sports such as indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball.

Winter sports will also be played for the first time at the Vancouver Whistler games, including Alpine skiing and snowboarding, Nordic skiing and biathlon, skeleton and wheelchair curling.

The games will be held in partnership with the First Nations “in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous communities,” Harry said on the games’ website.

Meanwhile, the prince’s office confirmed to CNN on Sunday that he and Meghan would travel to Nigeria in May.

In a press release, the Nigerian Defense Headquarters expressed “honor and delight” over the duke and duchess’s trip.

“During their stay in the country, they will be meeting with service members and will be hosted to arrays of cultural activities,” the press release said.

The possibility of Nigeria hosting the Invictus Games in the future will also be discussed, according to the press release.

On her podcast Archetypes, Markle has previously said that she is “43 percent Nigerian.”

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