Prince Harry arrived nearly 40 minutes late to an Invictus Games reception at The Gherkin in London on Wednesday after attending a private tea with his father, King Charles, and opened his speech with a light-hearted rebuke of the crowd.
As he thanked supporters and set out his charity’s plans for the next decade, the Duke of Sussex joked that attendees must have been “probably hammered” after waiting for him. The remark followed a moment when an audience member sneezed and the room applauded; Harry told them the reaction did not deserve a round of applause and quipped about the delay.
Organisers said Harry, 40, was due at the reception at 6:45 p.m. but arrived at about 7:24 p.m. after travelling to the event directly from Clarence House, where he had met the King. The Duke was reported to have been driven into Clarence House around 5:20 p.m. and to have left roughly 55 minutes later. The meeting was their first reported face-to-face contact in 19 months.
At the reception, Harry framed his remarks about humour and delay within a broader message about the Invictus movement’s mission. He thanked long-time supporters and newcomers, emphasised the organisation’s commitment to supporting wounded, injured and sick service personnel through sport and rehabilitation, and outlined ambitions to strengthen the international community and drive systemic change.
“We live in a time when conflicts rage across the globe, when anger and resentment towards those who are different can feel overwhelming,” he said, adding that the Invictus community “stands as a direct challenge to that” and that “the bonds of courage, respect and humanity are stronger than the divisions of politics, background, or nationality.”
Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 after seeing a similar sporting rehabilitation event in the United States. The competition has been staged in London (2014), Orlando (2016), Toronto (2017), Sydney (2018), The Hague (2020), Düsseldorf (2023) and Vancouver-Whistler (2025), with Birmingham slated to host in 2027.
The Duke’s visit to London is part of a rare four-day trip in which he carried out a series of solo charity engagements and, until the Clarence House meeting, had not seen the King or his brother, the Prince of Wales. Reports said Harry was not offered accommodation at a royal palace and was staying at a hotel at his own expense.
The encounter at Clarence House follows months of intermittent outreach between senior aides on both sides of the royal family. In July, aides to the King and the Duke were photographed together in London in what was described by royal sources as an initial step toward reopening communication channels.
The Prince of Wales did not attend the reception and instead visited a mental health hub in Cardiff on World Suicide Prevention Day. Representatives for the Duke and senior members of the royal household did not immediately comment.
At the end of his speech, Harry reiterated the Invictus Games Foundation’s focus on recovery through sport and community support and thanked the audience for their ongoing involvement. The reception marked a public moment of levity amid a visit that combined private family engagement with the Duke’s continued work on veteran and service-community causes.