Prince Harry Is Coming Back to America
The prince will visit Washington, D.C., this October.
— -- Royal watchers, take note. Britain’s Prince Harry is coming back to America.
Kensington Palace announced today the 30-year-old royal will visit Washington, D.C., in late-October to attend events connected to the Invictus Games, the worldwide event for injured servicemen and women he helped to found.
The 2016 Invictus Games will take place in Orlando next spring. Kensington Palace said Prince Harry’s visit to Washington will be connected to those games but did not release any other details of the trip.
Harry, fifth-in-line to the British throne, oversaw the inaugural Invictus Games last year in London.
The royal has said he was inspired to start the event after attending the Colorado Warrior Games with British service members in Colorado Springs in 2013, his last official visit to the United States, an eight-day tour during which he also visited Washington, New York and Connecticut.
The Invictus Games - which feature competition in sports ranging from archery and wheelchair basketball to road cycling and sitting volleyball – are a personal cause for Harry, who served 10 years in the British armed forces, including two operational tours of duty in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry ended his military service earlier this year, committing himself to public outreach and volunteerism.
Harry is now in Southern Africa, “privately working on front-line conservation projects,” according to Kensington Palace. When Prince Harry returns to the U.K. in September, he will volunteer in assisting wounded soldiers with their rehabilitation, the Palace said.
In addition to his Washington visit this fall, Prince Harry will also travel to South Africa and Lesotho, from Nov. 26 through Dec. 4.
Kensington Palace's statement said the royal would visit Lesotho to officially open a children’s center that will serve as the “flagship facility” for his AIDS-focused charity, Sentebale.
No details were offered on Prince Harry’s South Africa visit, other than to say it is an official trip at the request of South Africa’s government.