Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning to take their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet to a “family-focused” Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 opening ceremony in February next year, the Sunday Express can reveal.
According to a source, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are making arrangements for their children to attend the opening ceremony at BC Place Vancouver which will provide guests with a family-friendly start time of 1pm on February 8.
“Harry and Meghan are planning to take Archie and Lilibet to help promote a new ‘family-friendly’ Invictus Games,” the source said.
“The Sussexes have been very involved with the organisational elements of the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler events and it was very much their idea to make this a family-friendly games so that those taking part can bring their children along.”
If Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, join the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Canada, it will be one of only a few public outings the young prince and princess have undertaken since their parents moved to the United States in 2020.
According to the source, Invictus Games organisers have scheduled a week of “family-friendly” summer and winter sporting events to encourage sports fans and wounded veterans to get the younger generation involved.
Prince Archie is also earmarked to take an active role in the Invictus Games Foundation when he reaches the age of maturity.
“As both the founder and patron of the Invictus Games and Invictus Games Foundation, Harry is very keen to lead by example and bring his family along,” the source said.
“A patronage will one day be passed to Archie so the foundation can be kept within the family. Harry is adamant that the Invictus Games will remain a Sussex initiative.”
The closing ceremony will take place at Rogers Arena at 7pm on Sunday, February 16, 2025, and will be the only “adult-only” part of the games where officials and participants can let their hair down at the end of nine days of sporting competition.
Prince Harry, 39, is heavily involved with the Invictus Games and co-founded the event in 2014 while he was working with the Royal Foundation which he then shared with Prince William and Princess Kate, both 42.
Tensions between the couples have been strained following a series of public revelations from the Sussexes in their interview with Oprah Winfrey, their Netflix docuseries as well as Harry’s book ‘Spare’.
The Duke made a dash back to the UK earlier this year to see his father following the King’s diagnosis with cancer but was snubbed when he arrived in London for the Invictus Games 10th-anniversary service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in May.
The Sussexes have been approached for comment.
