Prince Harry has broken his silence on his family’s rocky return to Britain.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, spoke publicly for the first time since relocating from California with Meghan Markle, 43, and their children Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, at the Invictus Spirit Awards in London on Thursday night. The event marked his first official engagement since the cross-Atlantic move earlier this month.
Asked by HELLO! Magazine to name his highlight since coming back, Harry initially deflected with a joke. “My highlight so far? Oh, I don’t know. Would I dare share it with you?” he replied. He then offered a more measured assessment of the fortnight that saw his children pulled from their new school after just two days. “The last two weeks have been… It’s been eventful. But, you know, we’re getting stuck into the work. Kids are in school. We’re happy,” he told the magazine.
The family’s brief enrollment at a Cotswolds school ended abruptly when security concerns surfaced. A spokesperson for the couple later confirmed the withdrawal, stating: “The decision for the children to move school was taken following a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements.”
The same spokesperson emphasized that Harry and Meghan remained appreciative of the staff they left behind. “The parents remain extremely grateful to all the teachers and staff for the love, care and effort they have shown their family,” the spokesperson said.
Harry’s comments at the awards deliberately avoided addressing the school switch directly, beyond his clipped note that the children were back in classes somewhere. He pivoted instead to expressing enthusiasm for his adopted homeland. “It’s great to be back on British soil,” he added in his HELLO! Interview, while also voicing excitement for the 2026 Invictus Games scheduled for Birmingham.
The evening’s formal program gave Harry a platform to return to his most enduring project. He delivered the inaugural address for the Invictus Games Foundation’s new awards ceremony, tracing the initiative’s origins to a 2008 flight from Afghanistan. “Many of you know the story of how Invictus began. In 2008, flying home from Afghanistan, I traveled alongside three seriously injured British servicemen and the coffin of a Danish soldier,” he shared with the audience.
That experience, he explained, crystallized his understanding of military life’s dual nature. “That flight stayed with me because it helped me begin to understand two things about the military that would shape the rest of my life: it gives you purpose, identity, belonging, a team; and in a matter of seconds, injury or illness can take it all away,” Harry continued.
He described how the American Warrior Games inspired him to launch a British equivalent on compressed timelines. “Years later, after seeing the Warrior Games in America, we brought an idea back to London. We had less than a year to make it happen — which was probably useful, because it gave everyone less time to tell us it couldn’t be done. In September 2014, more than 400 competitors from 13 nations came together for the first ever Invictus Games,” he recounted.
His remarks closed with a look toward Birmingham. “Now 12 years later, thousands have benefitted. We have 26 nations in our community, and the games are coming home!” Harry declared.
The fundraiser reportedly collected $2.2 million for the Invictus movement.