Prince Harry says ‘everyone has strength to confront anything’ in Invictus games zoom call from new California mansion
PRINCE Harry gave a pep talk to Invictus games athletes today, saying “everyone has strength to confront anything”. The Duke of Sussex, 35, was chatting to competitors via a Zoom call as part of a virtual ‘At Home Superhero Tri’ from his new 14,562-square-foot mansion in California. Prince Harry was joined in the call by […]
PRINCE Harry gave a pep talk to Invictus games athletes today, saying “everyone has strength to confront anything”.
The Duke of Sussex, 35, was chatting to competitors via a Zoom call as part of a virtual ‘At Home Superhero Tri’ from his new 14,562-square-foot mansion in California.
Prince Harry was joined in the call by Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers, as well as Bruno Guevremont, Mark Reidy and Jen Warren.
The Duke discussed the importance of having an online community to help everyone keep in touch with one another, in the 10-minute chat.
Harry said: “It’s so important to know that if you’re going to have a bad day, if you’ve had a bad week, or you’ve experienced more trauma or another loss, or more stress in your life that you’ve got at your fingertips, whether it’s a WhatsApp group, whether it’s an online support group or whatever it is, or whether it’s just the Invictus community, you’ve always got one, well not even one, you’ve got at least a handful of people that you can reach out to.”
He added: “Arguably all of us want to have or feel the comfort to know that we’ve got it in case we need it.
“I think more than anything else that we touch upon as well, you’ve got the banter there.
“And you know that if you haven’t heard from someone for a while, the first thing you need to do is check on them.
“Just because your life is sort of on track and everything’s going according to plan, there’s other people you may not have heard of.”
Harry continued: “You might just get the answer of ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ But you guys are the ones that are going to dig a little bit deeper and say ‘fine is not the answer that I was looking for. I’m actually asking how you are?’
“And it is stressful. The injuries you guys have sustained anyway is one part of it but then how everybody’s being forced to live now, it’s really, really different.”
You know that if you haven’t heard from someone for a while, the first thing you need to do is check on them
Prince Harry
The Invictus Games, which sees current and former wounded, injured or sick servicemen and women from more than 20 countries compete, was due to be held in The Hague this year but was postponed due to the coronavirus.
Harry’s video chat comes after his wife Meghan Markle used a video interview to lash out at the media as well as say she was looking forward to “using her voice again” in a way she “hasn’t been able to of late”.
The Duchess of Sussex suggested she would use her platform to speak out on issues surrounding race and gender in the future – having been restricted by royal duties until now.
In an interview with The 19th – which describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy – Markle said: “So I think, from my standpoint, it’s not new to see this undercurrent of racism and certainly unconscious bias, but I think to see the changes that are being made right now is really something that I look forward to being a part of, and being a part of using my voice in a way I haven’t been able to of late.”
She also hit out at what she described at “salacious” journalism adding that reporting should be done through a “compassionate and empathetic lens” following her return to the States with Prince Harry and son Archie.
“What’s so fascinating, at least from my standpoint and my personal experience in the past couple years, is the headline alone, the clickbait alone, makes an imprint,” she said.
“There is so much toxicity out there in what is being referred to as, my husband and I talk about it often, this to the economy for attention. That is what is monetizable right now.
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“So if you’re just trying to grab someone’s attention, you’re going for something salacious versus what is truthful.
The Sussexes are believed to have taken out a massive £7.25m mortgage on their lavish nine bedroom, 16 bathroom estate which is their new home in the States.
The couple are reportedly calling the swanky Californian pad their “sanctuary”.
