Prince Harry and Meghan cheer as Team UK walks on to Invictus Games opening ceremony stage
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex cheered and clapped as the United Kingdom's team walked on to the stage for the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games.
Harry and Meghan 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 performed 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.
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Scottish Sun
8 minutes ago
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Daily Mail
8 minutes ago
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In previous years it has been a moment where the royal children shine - with little Prince Louis delighting fans last year as pretended to fly one of the planes, appearing to screw up his face as he mimicked the engine's deafening noise. The route for the flypast has not been officially confirmed, but the Military Air Shows has revealed an air restrictions map which shows the expected official route. Proposed restrictions are in the vicinity of the North Sea, East Anglia, Essex and London. Its expected the flypast will go over Buckingham Palace at 1pm. Held traditionally on the second Saturday in June, regardless of the Sovereign's actual date of birth, the celebrations have marked the monarch's official birthday since the mid-1700s. Queen Elizabeth attended all but two of her Trooping the Colours, missing it in 1955 when a national rail strike resulted in the event being cancelled and in 2020 due to lockdown restrictions. The parade is open to members of the public through an online ballot with ticketing ranging from £10 to £30 and is broadcast live on the BBC. Today's celebrations come following reports that the King will no longer ride in the Trooping the Colour due to his ongoing cancer treatments. As a former polo player and one of the Royal Family 's most accomplished equestrians, the monarch rode for years in the parade - both for his mother's official birthday celebrations and then for his own. But he will not appear on horseback at the event this weekend and will instead travel in a carriage for the procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade and back, according to The Sunday Times. It is understood that he will not ride at the parade again. His illness is said to have curtailed the 'monarch in the saddle' tradition that he briefly revived in 2023, the first time the monarch had ridden in the parade since Queen Elizabeth did in 1986. The Prince and Princess of Wales ' youngest child, was also last year captured yawning at the event, which usually consists of more than 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses, 400 musicians and a flyover of 70 aircraft The late Queen rode her trusty mare Burmese until the horse was retired when she began travelling in a carriage until her final appearance in 2022, where she took the salute from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The King, 76, was admitted to hospital for treatment to an enlarged prostate in January 2024 and shortly after was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer. It meant that he travelled with Queen Camilla in a carriage at last year's parade to be safer and more comfortable. This came a year after what is now known to be his last appearance on horseback for the celebration, which did not go particularly smoothly for Charles. He was riding Noble, a black mare which appeared unsettled throughout - at one point even breaking into a canter in the Mall. One television commentator described Noble's behaviour as 'if it was going into the starting stalls at Newmarket'. And while Charles is not expected to ride at the parade again, this weekend's event will be the first time that the Princess Royal has ridden in public since she was hospitalised following a suspected horse injury last year. Anne, 74, plans to ride in the parade this year in her role as gold stick, the colonel of the Blues and Royals, alongside the Prince of Wales as colonel of the Welsh Guards and the Duke of Edinburgh as colonel of the Scots Guards and London Guards. What is Trooping the Colour? The Trooping of the Colour has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for more than 260 years. Over 1400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians come together each June in a great display of military precision, horsemanship and fanfare to mark the Sovereign's official birthday. The streets are lined with crowds waving flags as the parade moves from Buckingham Palace and down The Mall to Horse Guard's Parade, alongside Members of the Royal Family on horseback and in carriages. The display closes with an RAF fly-past, watched by Members of the Royal Family from Buckingham Palace balcony. Once the Sovereign has arrived at Horse Guard's Parade in Whitehall, they are greeted by a Royal salute and carry out an inspection of the troops, who are fully trained and operational soldiers wearing the ceremonial uniform of red tunics and bearskin hats. After the military bands have performed, the escorted Regimental Colour, or flag, is processed down the ranks of soldiers. Over one hundred words of command are used by the Officer in Command of the Parade to direct the several hundred soldiers. Once the Foot Guards have marched past the Sovereign, they ride back to Buckingham Palace at the head of the soldiers, before taking the salute again at the Palace from a dais. The Sovereign is then joined by other Members of the Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force. A 41-gun salute is also fired in Green Park to mark the occasion.
