Prince Harry unveils location for Invictus Games 2025, a place with special meaning to him and Meghan Markle

Invictus Games 2025 to be held in North America for first time since 2017

(Getty Images for the Invictus Ga)

Prince Harry has announced the location for the 2025 Invictus Games, and it’s a place that has a special meaning for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Ahead of the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in The Hague, Prince Harry revealed the Games will be held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada for the Games first-ever winter sports edition. It was previously announced that the sixth Games - to be held in September 2023 - will be hosted in Düsseldorf, Germany.

“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,” said Prince Harry.

“The Invictus Games Vancouver-Whistler 2025 will offer a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sports,” he added. “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.”

The new winter sports will include alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton, and wheelchair curling.

In January 2020, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and son Archie relocated to Canada after the Sussexes announced they would step back as senior member of the royal family. Before making the permanent move to California in March 2020, Harry and Meghan spent time in a “press free zone” on Vancouver Island, where they previously spent their first holiday season as a family of three in 2019.

Canada is also where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their first public appearance as a couple at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto. Meghan previously lived in Toronto for seven years while acting in the TV drama, Suits.

While attending this year’s Games in The Hague, Netherlands, Prince Harry reflected on his and Meghan’s first Invictus Games nearly five years ago, and how special it was to return together as parents.

“The Toronto Games were our first time out and about publicly in an official way. We were dating at the time, so it was a lot to take in, but fortunately, we were with the perfect community for that,” Harry said in a cover interview with People.

“Now, five years later, here we are in The Hague at the fifth Invictus Games, as parents of two, and living in the US,” Harry said. “I had always wanted to share these incredible moments with someone special, and to have Meg by my side means everything.”

Prince Harry and Meghan are parents to son Archie Harrison, two, and daughter Lilibet “Lili” Diana, 10 months.