Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle will celebrate the 2025 Invictus Games in a country very close to their hearts
The 2025 international Paralympic-style event for wounded and ill military veterans will be held in Canada, where the couple lived before their 2020 royal exit announcement (and where Meghan resided while working on Suits!). The competition—founded by the Duke of Sussex who served in the British Armed Forces for a decade—will take place Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
This installment of the Invictus Games will for the first time incorporate winter sports, such as alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton bobsledding and wheelchair curling.
"As Invictus continues to adapt and evolve, I am extremely excited to announce that the Invictus Games Foundation has selected Canada to host the first-ever Winter Hybrid Games in 2025," Harry said in a statement shared by the Invictus Games Foundation on April 22. "With deep respect, I'm also pleased to share that the Games in Canada will be held in partnership with the First Nations, in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with indigenous communities."
Harry and Megan recently attended the 2022 Invictus Games in the Netherlands. Next year's games will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany.
New York City and Seattle were on the shortlist to host the 2025 event. But Canada clearly holds a special place in the hearts of Harry and Meghan. In fact, 2025 will also mark the first time the Invictus Games has returned to a country. In 2017, the event was held in Toronto, where the Duchess of Sussex used to live and work as an actress. At the Invictus Games, she and Harry made their first public appearance as a couple, more than a year after they started dating.
Harry and Meghan have since married and moved with Archie to the duchess' native Southern California. The couple, who welcomed daughter Lilibet "Lili" Diana 10 months ago, have lived on the West Coast ever since.