Sussexes on the Move: After a Whirlwind Week and Meghan and Harry’s Canadian Return, the Prince Opens Up About King Charles

A big warm welcome back to the Sussexes, who are spending a three-day Valentine’s getaway, sans kids, in their old stomping ground of British Columbia (they spent six months in the province prior to moving to Los Angeles).

But it hasn’t been all bubble baths and chocolate-dipped strawberries, as the Duke and Duchess have been hard at work preparing for next year’s Invictus Games, which will land in Whistler in February 2025.

Now approaching its seventh year, the games are the brainchild of Prince Harry. Upon returning from  Afghanistan in 2014 after serving with the Army Air Corps, he was inspired to start an event that celebrates wounded, injured or sick veterans. 

More than 500 competitors from 23 nations are expected to participate in the games, which includes events like sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby on its roster, but is now adding winter events like alpine and nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.

On the first day, on the slopes at Whistler’s Blackcolm ski resort, cameras caught the Duke, bundled up and surrounded by snow, learning to sit-ski (and doing well!) while onlookers cheered and some Brits sang God Save the King. And Meghan, wearing a Calvin Klein puffer, a Burberry toque and good old Canadian Sorels, was also seen snapping pics of Harry in action.

 

On the second day – with the duchess looking on resplendent in a Hermès puffer and sporting her trusty Canadian Kamik boots – delighted onlookers by braving the skeleton run twice.

 

Another sport we’ve seen Prince Harry newly embrace? That’d be (American) football. Earlier this week, the Duke surprised everyone by appearing in Las Vegas to present the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year to Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive tackle Cameron Heyward not only for his excellence on the field but also for his commitment to philanthropy and community impact off of it.

Joining in the wild hoopla of this year’s Super Bowl, Prince Harry cleverly showed his new neighbours that he’s an American football (ie. not soccer) fan now. But he didn’t miss the chance to poke fun at the sport too: “I really love how you stole rugby from us and you made it your own,” he joked. “Instead of passing it backwards, just pass it forwards. Why not wear pads and a helmet? … And why not take a breather every 15 seconds?”

The Duke’s Super Bowl experience was a whole lot different than yours. He wore a full tuxedo (a better choice than his previous Vegas attire, ahem) and, in lieu of nachos at the neighbour’s, Harry enjoyed a black-tie gala in Vegas.

No one was more surprised to see Harry than Heyward, who couldn’t contain his astonishment. ”That’s freaking Harry,” Heyward said. “Man, I’m in shock. That’s Prince Harry!”

 

Few had expected the Duke to pop up in Sin City just a day after visiting his father, King Charles III, in London. (The clearly busy, jet-setting Duke – who, along with the Duchess recently travelled to Jamaica for the premiere of the film Bob Marley: One Love – visited with his cancer-stricken father for just 45 minutes. How long with stepmother and brother, you ask? Zero minutes.)

While the rest of the Royal Family has been braving a difficult last few months – King Charles’s cancer diagnosis and the Duchess of Cambridge’s abdominal surgery that has put them both out of commission – the Sussexes on the other side of the pond seem to be on the good side of Lady Luck.  

First, in a move that’s no doubt been long in the making, they launched their new website: Sussex.com. Notice anything missing? That would be the “royal” part of their former site, www.sussexroyal.com, which states that the 2020 site was made “prior to their move the United States” before promptly redirecting web cruisers to the new site, which was designed by Article, the same Canadian company that Markle used for her former blog, The Tig. (Does this mean rumours of The Tig’s return could be true? Only time will tell!)

Beneath a banner of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle smiling widely and clapping their hands (an image taken from the closing ceremony of the last Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany) scroll down and you’ll see that this site is all business, all the time. The Archewell Foundation, the couple’s non-profit organization that vows to “show up, do good,” and Archewell Productions, their TV and film company, are both linked below.

 

 

Click on the menu and then news for the real action under “News,” which is probably the point of the website revamp: the same day the site launched, the Duchess announced a new partnership with Lemonada, an independent podcast production company with a women-centric and feminist focus. Seinfeld’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus, comedian Sarah Silverman and I’m Glad My Mom Died author Jennette McCurdy have all found podcast success at Lemonada.

With the new podcast announcement came a stunning new portrait by Misan Harriman, the couple’s go-to photographer and friend. Meghan looks Cali-cool with loose hair, a sleeveless grey turtleneck and the beloved gold Cartier watch that Harry gifted her and once belonged to her late mother-in-law, Diana.

 

 

There’s no news as of yet on the content of the podcast in the works for Meghan but, in the meantime, Lemonada is hard at work to re-distribute her former series, Archetypes, across all audio platforms rather than just Spotify. Despite debuting at No. 1 and boasting A-list guests like Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton, the couple’s deal with the podcasting giant was none-the-less shelved following some corporate upheaval.

The new deal at Lemonada represents a fresh start for the Suits actress and a better fit for whatever comes next for the Sussexes – including producing a film based on the book Meet Me at the Lake, by Canadian author Carley Fortune.

In the meantime, the couple’s Canadian charm offensive, which included lots of hugs to the athletes on hand, a visit to the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, a First Nations museum and art gallery, and wheelchair curling with crooner Michael Bublé at Vancouver’s Hillcrest Community Centre.

The Duke also took time for a sit-down with Good Morning America, where he opened up about visiting his father following his cancer diagnosis. The hopeful headline from the interview: “I love my family.”

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