Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to make a symbolic visit to Canada this month as they prepare to mark the one-year waypoint to the 2025 Invictus Games which will be held in Vancouver and Whistler.
The couple will undertake their working visit to attend events connected with the 12-month marker from February 14 to 16, People reports, and follows the 2023 Invictus Games which were held in Dusseldorf, Germany.
A post to games’ official social media account on Thursday read: “We are thrilled to be welcoming back the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025’s One Year to Go celebrations and participating nations’ Winter Training Camp.”
The Canadian games will be the seventh hosted by the Invictus Games Foundation, co-founded by Harry in 2014 to provide an international platform for wounded, sick and injured veterans from around the world to showcase their mental and physical recovery through sport.
The first event was held in London in 2014, with subsequent host cities including Orlando in 2016 and the Hague in 2022. The 2025 tournament will mark the second time it has been held in Canada, with the city of Toronto previously playing host in 2017.
Samir Hussein/WireImage/ Karwai Tang/WireImage
Harry and Meghan’s February visit will be heavy with symbolism as Canada has formed an important backdrop to some of their most important relationship milestones.
In their eponymous 2022 Netflix series and Harry’s memoir Spare, it was revealed that much of the couple’s early dating history took place in Toronto, where Meghan was living while filming the hit legal drama Suits.
The couple met in the summer of 2016 and quickly became a serious item, however, did not make an official joint appearance in public until September 2017 where they both attended the Toronto Invictus Games, photographed side-by-side.
Following their marriage in 2018 and a turbulent two year period with the British press, the couple used Canada as a refuge from where they formally announced in 2020 that they were splitting from the monarchy to become financially independent.
During this period, Harry and Meghan stayed at a friends house on Vancouver Island in British Columbia with their young son, Prince Archie.
The Invictus Games has become Harry’s most celebrated working output which, while formed as a working member of the royal family, he retained his relationship and role as founder and patron after his move to the U.S.
Though the duke and duchess’ popularity has fluctuated in the years since their split from the monarchy, their work with, and appearances at, the Invictus Games have been generally well-received.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
The event has also informed another aspect of their post-royal lives, in inspiring the 2023 six-episode docuseries Heart of Invictus, produced by the couple’s Archewell Productions company in partnership with Netflix.
The show followed a number of veterans as they prepared to compete in the 2022 Games held in the Netherlands. It was well received by critics and holds a 78 percent audience score on movie review site, Rotten Tomatoes, though failed to make it onto the Netflix streaming charts.
Harry and Meghan’s upcoming working visit to Canada comes after the couple made a surprise appearance at a San Jose Sharks v. Vancouver Canucks hockey game in Vancouver this past November. It was revealed that during the trip the prince had visited the organizers of the 2025 games to see how preparations were developing.
The Canadian games will be the first to include winter sports in the schedule of events, and could see Harry and Meghan bring their children, Prince Archie (4) and Princess Lilibet (2) to attend for the first time too.
During a speech given at the 2023 games, Meghan said she looked forward to the day the whole Sussex family could witness the events.
“We can’t wait to bring our kids also so they can experience just how awesome this is,” she said.
Newsweek approached representatives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Invictus Games via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.