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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

Prince Harry takes part in Land Rover driving event as he joins Meghan at Invictus Games

Prince Harry has been spotted taking part in the Land Rover Driving Challenge ahead of the opening of the Invictus Games.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have travelled to the Netherlands for the televised sporting event in their first public appearance in Europe since leaving their posts as senior royals more than two years ago.

Sweet photos showed Meghan cheering on her husband as he got behind the wheel to face an obstacle course built at the Zuiderpark in The Hague.

They dressed down in jeans for the afternoon.

The pair are expected to address the audience at the opening of the event - which is sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover - on Saturday evening.

The Dutch royal family and the country’s prime minister will be among those in attendance.

The opening ceremony will feature live performances by the Kaiser Chiefs, the Johan Willem Friso royal military band, singer-songwriter Anneke van Giersbergen and rock band DI-RECT.

A crew has joined Harry and Meghan at the games to film a Netflix series called Heart Of Invictus.

The series, produced by Archewell Productions, provides a fly-on-the-wall inside look at those competing.

Prince Harry and Meghan talk to members of Team Romania and Team France (Getty Images for the Invictus Ga)

The Invictus Games Ukraine team manager – who is set to appear in the documentary – said she has discussed with Meghan the importance of “having a voice”.

Oksana Horbach, 39, is in the Ukraine Armed Forces and supplies meals to servicemen and women in Kyiv.

She said: “I spoke with Meghan about the importance of having a voice and she totally understood that – be heard, be vocal, have a voice, just tell your own truth, your experience. It’s very important to her.

“And she told me that it is something that they support profoundly, with full heart, to have this platform, Invictus Games platform, for the nations, especially for Ukraine, to be able to have that voice.”

The Invictus Games - founded by Prince Harry in 2014 - is an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans.

Harry and Meghan’s trip to the Netherlands comes after the pair were absent from the Duke of Edinburgh’s memorial service in London last month.

Harry is bringing a claim against the Home Office after being told he would no longer be given the same degree of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.

The duke wants to bring his children to visit but he and his family are “unable to return to his home” because it is too dangerous, his legal representative has said.

The opening ceremony will be shown on the BBC.

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