Prince Harry has announced the Invictus Games is coming back to the UK in 2027 – the first time the event will be held here since its debut in 2014.
In a new statement, the Duke of Sussex praised Birmingham as a “formidable contender”, with the Midlands city being set to host the Invictus Games in three years’ time.
The Games has changed a lot over the last decade, its main alteration being no longer associated with The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
2014, the father-of-two founded the international multi-sport event as part of the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, as it was then known.
The first iteration of the Games was overtly royal in nature, with King Charles and Prince William attending to support the Duke of Sussex at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
However, after stepping down as a working royal in 2020, the Games became an independent organisation, separate from the Royal Family’s endeavours.
No members of the Royal Family, including Prince William and Princess Kate, have publicly shown support for the Invictus Games over the past four years, with it being held in foreign countries.
However, with the Games’s return to the UK in 2027, questions will likely be raised over the Prince and Princess of Wales’s attendance to support the former working royal.
Kate and William, both 42, would not be obliged to attend the event, given its status as an independent organisation.
However, the Royal Family would almost certainly have to consider the optics of a major sporting event being held in the heart of the UK and no visibility from Harry’s immediate family, thus placing the Waleses in an awkward position.
William and Kate could run the risk of appearing cold if they failed to show public support for the Duke of Sussex.
However, defenders of the Prince and Princess of Wales would argue Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have made several negative statements about the Waleses, through an autobiography, interviews and a Netflix docuseries.
When the duke returned to London for the 10th-anniversary service at St Paul’s Cathedral, no members of the Royal Family, including non-working royals like Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, showed up to support Prince Harry.
Prince Andrew’s daughters, who were previously known to be very close to Harry, were viewed by many as showing their allegiance to Prince William and King Charles.
Just a couple of weeks later, Beatrice, 35, and Eugenie, 34, joined the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party, in a major show of solidarity with the future King.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, could also be making her first major return to the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral in 2022 if she joins her husband in Birmingham.
Meghan has joined Harry at each Invictus Games event since 2017. That year, the duchess made her royal debut at Air Canada Centre when she joined Prince Harry for the Invictus Games in Toronto.
The couple walked hand-in-hand, confirming to the world that they were in a relationship.
Meghan joined Harry at the Games in 2018 in Sydney as a working royal, and later in 2022 in The Hague and 2023 in Dusseldorf after stepping back from official duties.
The 2027 Invictus Games are three years away, and there is no way of telling how the Waleses’ relationship with the Sussexes will be.
If Princess Kate and Prince William attend the upcoming Invictus Games events in 2027, it could be deeply awkward, but there is also the opportunity for an emotional reunion and a powerful full-circle moment for the Royal Family.
