‘From one soldier to another’
Prince Harry concluded the 2025 Invictus Games in Canada with a poignant speech to competitors and their families.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, took to the stage at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Sunday to share a few parting thoughts during the event’s closing ceremony.
“O Canada,” Harry sang aloud. “You’ve only gone and done it again. Did we all have fun?”
The former working royal — who founded and launched the Invictus Games in 2014 as multisport Paralympic-styled games for wounded or injured servicemen and veterans — thanked “all Canadians” for hosting this year’s winter sports event.
“To our Invictus wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids, grandparents and friends, if you can, please stand and be recognized — we salute you,” the duke said. “To our comrades, friends or loved ones who we lost to battle or to suicide, tonight we honor you too.”
“To those of you whose journey to these Games has been difficult and uncertain, who questioned whether you would even make it here today, thank you for showing us what is possible. In the pursuit of saving yourselves, you have also saved all of us.”
The runaway royal said each competitor — who is either a former or serving active duty serviceman or servicewoman — gave him “hope through your healing, honesty and humanity.”
“And of course through your humor,” he said, adding, “You know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s an in-house joke.
“Our entire Invictus community, whether here tonight or watching from home, is making the world a better place, and you’re doing it by being your awesome selves,” the father of two added.
Elsewhere in his poignant speech, Harry vowed to keep the Invictus Games — which last year celebrated its 10th anniversary on his home soil — going for as long as they are needed.
“While I never expected that we would still be here in 2025, from one soldier to another, I also promise you this… so long as our brothers and sisters are striving to heal and grow, the Games will go on,” he said.
“So long as there are those around the world who view you with sympathy, rather than admiration and respect, the Games will go on.”
“And so long as the challenges around us demand it and require it… the Games will go on. Bring on Invictus Games. Birmingham 2027. You have permission to party,” the duke concluded.
Shortly afterwards, his wife, Meghan Markle, took to social media to share a sweet clip of the full arena — despite being back home in Montecito, Calif., with their two children.
“So proud of you,” the “Suits” alum, 43, wrote on her Instagram Story alongside a clapping emoji.
