Prince Harry gave Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a warm embrace at the 2025 Invictus Games.
Harry, 40, and Trudeau, 53, were spotted watching indoor rowing together at the Invictus Games on Sunday, February 16, at the Vancouver Convention Center (VCC), per a video exclusively obtained by Us Weekly. After the pair embraced, they were seen chatting animatedly as they observed the match.
Trudeau and Harry previously met several times during the 2017 Invictus Games, which were held in Toronto, Canada, and cheered on competitors side-by-side.
Trudeau’s attendance at the 2025 games comes over one month after he announced his resignation as Prime Minister of Canada and the leader of the ruling Liberal Party. “I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its new leader,” the politician said in a statement on January 6, per CNN. Canada’s parliament is suspended until March 24 when a new leader is chosen.
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The Duke of Sussex is hosting the 2025 games in both Vancouver and Whistler, Canada, from its opening ceremony on February 8 until the closing ceremony on Sunday, February 16. Harry founded the competition for injured, wounded or sick servicemen in 2014. This year, around 550 athletes from 25 nations competed in a variety of sports, including wheelchair curling, wheelchair basketball, alpine skiing, sitting volleyball and indoor rowing.
Harry himself is a veteran, having served 10 years in the British Army before marrying Meghan Markle in 2018.
“He truly understands,” Invictus athlete James Phelps, who competed in the skeleton biathlon, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball, exclusively told Us during the games while at the Vancouver Convention Center on Saturday, February 15. “Like, he’s been through situations like most of us here have, so just the genuine nature of him putting this together for people who have been through similar things.”
James, 44, told Us that Harry was “on the Apache squadron” when he visited one of “our sites” while they were both deployed in Afghanistan in 2012.
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“We were working with search and rescue helicopters,” James explained. “So he came over and just did a tour of our squadron and stuff — taking pictures and things. [He was just] a regular, genuine guy. This was 2012 — we had a big attack at Camp Bastion. It was September 2012.”
Speaking exclusively to Us, CEO of the Invictus Games Foundation Dominic Reid called Harry’s “commitment” to the games “unparalleled,” noting, “He’s very good at work.”
“One of my most proud and extraordinary, biggest moments, was that we briefed the military committee of NATO,” Reid told Us. “And so there I was in that big oval room, and he joined by video link, and he said something very profound. He said — and I think it took everybody slightly by surprise — that the Invictus Games, deployment of the games [sic] was really important for him, his recovery too. I think we’re all in this together. You know, I made some remarks about my journey, and I wasn’t injured. I wasn’t deployed in combat, but this has been extraordinary for all of us. So, you know, he’s 100% committed.”
