Prince Harry & Meghan Markle will RETURN to Britain for Invictus ceremony as duke shares excitement
PRINCE Harry’s Invictus Games will be held in Birmingham – meaning the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will return to the UK.
The West Midlands city will be unveiled today at a ceremony and flag-raising.
Harry is not attending the ceremony but he and Meg are now set to return for the games, which will take place in 2027.
Meghan, 42, has joined Harry, 39, at every Invictus Games while they have been together after first appearing at the 2017 Toronto games.
She has avoided the UK since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022 apart from spending just a few hours at Heathrow while changing flights ahead of the couple’s ‘pseudo-Royal’ tour of Nigeria in May.
The last time Harry held his games for wounded soldiers in the UK in 2014, the London games were attended by William, Camilla and Charles.
It comes as Invictus CEO Dominic Reid stepped down from his role and next year Invictus Games will be in Whistler and Vancouver, Canada.
Prince Harry said: “Congratulations to Birmingham, UK, on winning the bid to host the Invictus Games 2027.
“Your city’s strong ties to the Armed Forces community made it a formidable contender from the very start.
“Over the years, we’ve seen each city bring a unique spirit and vision to life for competitors, their families, and spectators.
“We have no doubt the people of Birmingham will join in celebrating the unwavering respect and admiration we have for our veteran and service community, showing the world how their courage ignites hope and unites us all- something your city knows well.”
Harry and Meghan do not have a permanent residence in the UK after they were evicted from Frogmore Cottage.
It comes after controversy was sparked upon Harry’s last trip to the UK to mark the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games.
The duke flew over from his £2million Montecito pad to attend the star-studded bash at St Paul’s Cathedral in May.
Doubts were cast over whether a reunion would be held with King Charles, as the Monarch hosted a Buckingham Palace Garden Party just a few miles away.
Despite speculation the Royal Family’s health shocks may draw the father and son closer together, the pair did not meet.
Prince Harry's last visit to the UK
PRINCE Harry landed back in Britain for a whistle-stop UK trip - but he didn't see King Charles.
The Duke of Sussex jetted all the way from California for a service at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games.
Harry flew to the UK alone without Meghan or their children Archie and Lilibet.
He revealed he would not see his dad King Charles after they reunited at Clarence House in February for their first face-to-face meeting for 16 months.
The duke said he “hopes to see his dad soon“.
He also did not see his brother Prince William.
Charles, 75, resumed public duties a week prior for the first time since beginning cancer treatment.
It had been rumoured that he would meet with Harry as he was expected to attend the year’s first Buckingham Palace garden party.
But a spokesperson for Harry said that wasn’t the case.
They said: “It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.
“The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”
A spokesperson for Harry claimed His Majesty’s schedule was “too busy” to accommodate catching up with his son.
However, sources close to Charles claimed he extended an olive branch to the duke and offered him a stay at a royal residence.
Insiders alleged this was rejected by Harry, who opted to book a hotel instead.
The father and son last met in February this year after the duke made a 24 trans-Atlantic dash for a 30-minute reunion.
It is not known whether the Royal Family will open the door to Harry and Meghan when they arrive at Birmingham for the next Invictus Games.
One royal expert claimed the Sussexes would never be invited to a family reunion again.
Sarah Hewson, royal correspondent, told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show how the current state of family affairs is “a mess, and it’s a very sorry mess”.
However, others have speculated Harry and Charles could repair their fractured relationship over time due to the King’s cancer diagnosis.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Sun: “Serious illness is the big changer, despite everything that’s happened, given the seriousness of the situation, anything can happen.
“There could be something that surprises us all. You could have all the Sussexes over here, it’s perfectly possible a reunion could happen.
“Next week, next month, next year, you could get something you never dreamed you’d get.”
However, there remains a huge question mark over the duke and Prince William’s “firmly cemented feud”, after vile attacks made in Harry’s memoir Spare.
A timeline of Prince Harry and William's 'feud': Brothers 'at war'
In 2018, the Sun told how “simmering tension” began when William questioned the speed of Harry and Meghan’s engagement.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry, 39, also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
It came after Prince Philip called Meghan the “D.O.W” after the Duchess of Windsor — the American divorcee who led Edward VIII to abdicate.
And he warned the late Queen to be “cautious” of Harry’s then bride-to-be, a royal author claims.
Ingrid Seward revealed in new book My Mother And I that Prince Philip felt it was “uncanny…how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor“.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Last year Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan.
In his book Spare, Harry claimed William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He claimed he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
