Meghan WON’T join Prince Harry in Britain for Invictus Games anniversary service, Sussex spokesman confirms

The Duchess of Sussex will not join Prince Harry when he arrives in Britain next week.

But she will fly from the US to Nigeria to meet her husband immediately afterwards for an official visit, it emerged yesterday.

A spokesperson for the couple confirmed that Meghan would not accompany her husband to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games for wounded military personnel on May 8.

But they said she would be by his side for an ‘Invictus-inspired’ visit to Africa immediately after the duke leaves Britain.

Harry last returned to Britain in February for a brief 30-minute meeting with his father after it was announced he was being treated for cancer.

He said in an interview afterwards that he would “come over to see my family as much as possible,” but the brevity of the reunion with his father was noted by many.

Meghan will fly from the US to Nigeria to immediately meet her husband Prince Harry for an official visit, it emerged yesterday

Meghan has only briefly set foot in Britain three times since she and Harry bitterly quit their royal duties for a new life in California. Sources close to the Duchess previously said she is ‘done’ with Britain and ‘doesn’t want the drama’. So it will be seen as important by many that while there are no plans for Meghan to accompany her husband to London for such an important event, there has been official confirmation of her intention to travel to Nigeria.

Buckingham Palace would not comment on Harry’s visit or whether he would meet his father again.

The Mail understands the King’s schedule is “quite busy” that day – he will hold his weekly meeting with the Prime Minister and hopes to attend the first Buckingham Palace garden party of the summer, which will be his biggest public appearance since the cancer diagnosis. .

It will be Harry’s first visit to Britain since he lost a High Court appeal over his security arrangements after his 24-hour police protection was lifted when he quit as a working royal.

Senior members of the royal family are not expected to join Prince Harry for the Invictus Games event in Britain.

Harry will give a lecture at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, on May 8 to mark the tenth anniversary of the Games, but there has been no mention of the presence of senior royals.

Prince Harry will fly to Britain in just over a week without Meghan for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games

Meghan and Harry take selfies with fans as they attend the 2023 Ukraine Nigeria Mixed Team preliminary round

It is thought Harry will stay in a hotel during his time in Britain – as he did on his previous recent visits – before heading to Nigeria days later to join Meghan.

The couple have been invited by the country’s chief of defense staff – who met Harry in Germany last September during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf – to take part in ‘cultural activities’ before an unofficial royal visit.

They will meet soldiers and their families and take part in ‘traditional cultural activities’, according to Nigerian media.

The Sussexes left the UK and moved to America when they stepped down as working royals in January 2020.

Harry and Meghan’s acceptance of the invitation – their first visit to Nigeria as a couple – is said to have left the country’s defense headquarters feeling “honoured” and “delighted”, according to local newspaper reports.

Meghan revealed in 2022 that she found out she is 43 percent Nigerian after taking a genealogy test “a few years ago.”

On her podcast Archetypes, she told Nigerian-American comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, “I’m going to go into more detail about this because everyone I’ve told it to, especially Nigerian women, is like, ‘What!’

The visit comes days after Harry flew to Britain for the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said that with Nigeria hoping to host a future Invictus Games and Meghan’s ancestors linked to the country, it makes sense for the couple to make the trip.

But he does not believe it is a move for the Sussexes to return to public duties, while Harry ‘doesn’t feel like it’.

‘Are [the visit to Nigeria] “It’s a very good face-saver now that Meghan isn’t coming to Britain and shows a bit of PR nous,” he said.