Prince Harry used part of his opening speech during the 2022 Invictus Games to talk about his son, Prince Archie.
The Duke of Sussex spoke about Archie’s career goals as well as his advice for his and Meghan Markle’s oldest child while in The Hague for the fifth Invictus Games last year. The docuseries, Heart of Invictus, which was released on Wednesday (30 August) on Netflix in the US and UK, follows six athletes in the 2022 games as they prepared to compete. With the recap of the games came the resurfacing of Harry’s speech.
After being introduced by his wife, Meghan, Harry said that the Invictus Games was meant to represent the “boundless humility, the compassion, and the friendship” of the people involved as he specifically mentioned both the athletes from The Netherlands and Ukraine.
"To be role models, or the role models that each of you are, takes strength, and it takes courage,” Harry said.
He then began talking about his son, Archie. “When I talk to my son Archie about what he wants to be when he grows up, some days it’s an astronaut, other days it’s a pilot - a helicopter pilot obviously - or Kwazii from Octonauts,” he said, referencing his time serving in the British army as well as the popular children’s show.
“But what I remind him is that no matter what you want to be when you grow up, it’s your character that matters most, and nothing would make his mum and me prouder than to see him have the character of what we see before us today,” Harry continued. He went on to describe the character those involved with the games have, as they have “overcome immense challenges,” and because of that, they are “healing and teaching the world as [they] go”.
Prince Harry is an Army veteran who served two tours of Afghanistan. In one moment during the docuseries, he described how returning from his final tour triggered an “unravelling” following the death of his mother, the late Princess Diana, but that “no one around me really could help”.
The docuseries was first announced over two years ago and was made by Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions company. It is directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Joanna Natasegara, who worked together on the Oscar-winning short, The White Helmets.
The five-part documentary was released in the lead up to the 2023 games, which are happening in Düsseldorf, Germany starting on 9 September and lasting for eight days. Harry will be present for the entire tournament while Meghan will be arriving later.
Royal commentator Omid Scobie said in a tweet: “A spokesperson confirms that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are ‘delighted to be attending’ the Invictus Games 2023 in Düsseldorf next month.”
“Harry will be there from the start and Meghan will join him later on in the competition. They’ll both be at the closing ceremony.”
Harry was named the executive producer of Heart of Invictus after his other Netflix project last year, the six-part documentary Harry & Meghan. The December 2022 docuseries saw the duke and duchess shed light on their troubled life within the royal family, and accuse Kensington Palace of lying at the Megxit summit to protect Harry’s brother William, and father Charles, now King.
