Prince Harry made a surprise appearance on a Zoom call with four former competitors of the Invictus Games last week, joining them from his new home in Santa Barbara, California. The Duke spoke to Jen Warren from the United Kingdom, Bruno Gruevremont from Canada, Mark Reidy from Australia as well as their team captain JJ Chalmers.
Prince Harry: Surprise appearance on call with "At Home Superheroes"!
Harry made a surprise appearance on the call because all four of them have recently been taking part in the "At Home Superhero Tri", a virtual triathlon sponsored by Marvel with the goal to reach 2020 kilometres. The Duke congratulated them on their recent achievements, but only after a little bit of banter.
As Prince Harry popped up on the screen, Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers hilariously remarked: "I tried to book Captain America, but I managed to get Captain Wales instead." But Harry quickly quipped back: "The banter certainly hasn't improved in the last few months, that's for sure."
The group shared their experiences of the challenge with him and they naturally got to talking about how the current pandemic is affecting everyone's way of life. Prince Harry said: "With lockdown and everything else that's been going on and The Hague being postponed as well, surely this was an amazing opportunity for you guys to come together not only to do the physical side, which is improving your mental fitness, but to be together as a team doing something like this, and having a goal and a purpose and to some extent a distraction from the day to day life."
And the Duke also commented on how important it is to have someone to talk to, emphasizing the importance of the Invictus online community: "It's so important to know that if you're going to have a bad day, if you've had a bad week, or you've experienced more trauma or another loss, or more stress in your life that you've got at your fingertips, whether it's a WhatsApp group, whether it's an online support group or whatever it is, or whether it's just the Invictus community, you've always got one, well not even one, you've got at least a handful of people that you can reach out to."
Prince Harry certainly had a great time joining Jen, Bruno, Mark, and JJ - and his surprise appearance on the call also gave all royal fans a chance to glimpse inside his new home in Santa Barbara, where he now lives with Meghan and Archie!