Jill Biden will skip Prince Harry’s upcoming Invictus Games and will instead attend a going-away dinner next week for U.S. athletes, the White House announced on Friday.
The first lady is opting against traveling to the veterans event in Düsseldorf, Germany, which Harry and Meghan will attend, and will instead speak to the competing Americans next week.
Jill Biden, who is a staunch advocate for veterans, will still mark the Games by addressing 60 wounded, injured and ill active-service military members and veterans in Belvoir, Virginia, the East Wing confirmed on Friday.
She has enjoyed a close friendship with Harry for years and they have bonded over their support for veterans.
But recent developments in their relationship suggest she has started to keep her distance.
The First Lady wanted to attend the April 2022 games in The Hague in the Netherlands, per a source close to her, but ultimately didn’t go to avoid offending the British Royal Family, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed in July.
Prince Harry and Jill Biden have enjoyed a close friendship for several years, with the First Lady regularly showing her support for the Duke’s Invictus Games – above the two at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend this year’s Games, which take place from September 9 through September 16.
‘The Duke will be in attendance throughout the entirety of the games and will be joined by the Duchess shortly after the games begin,’ the Sussexes said in a statement.
This year’s Games will be the sixth iteration of the event. Ahead of the opening ceremony, Prince Harry launched a new Netflix documentary that showcases incredible stories of heroism from veterans who competed in the Games.
The five-part Heart of Invictus documentary follows a group of former military servicemen and women on their road to the paralympic-style sporting competition Invictus.
Prince Harry created the Invictus Games to honor wounded warriors. The first event was in 2014.
The Games had been bonding point between Harry, a veteran of Afghanistan, and the Bidens, whose son Beau served in the Delaware National Guard.
Prince Harry’s new documentary Heart of Invictus is on Netflix – above Harry is in his California home on a zoom meeting about preparations for the game
Harry and Meghan in the Netflix documentary Heart of Invictus
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have distanced themselves from Harry and Meghan since they’ve entered the White House
Jill Biden has attended past sessions of the Invictus Games as has Joe Biden. Both Bidens attended the games when they were held in Canada in 2017. And Jill Biden attended the 2016 games in Florida.
The First Lady wanted to attend the April 2022 games in The Hague in the Netherlands, per a source close to her, but ultimately didn’t go to avoid offending the British Royal Family, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed.
Through her Joining Forces Initiative Jill Biden is a huge supporter of the military and their families. And, despite their 33-year age gap, Jill and Harry have formed a bond over their shared interest in veterans’ affairs.
However, British officials, in a working level conversation, conveyed to National Security Council staff that they thought the idea would land badly, a source said.
‘She wanted to go,’ a person familiar with the event told DailyMail.com of the First Lady, but noted the East Wing was concerned the Palace could be hurt if she attended.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten led the US delegation instead.
At that point, the Duke and Duchess were seen as individuals and not holding any official state standing, given their exit from the Royal Family.
Harry and Meghan have seemingly tried their own lobbying campaign with the White House, including wanting a ride back to the United States on Air Force One after the Queen’s funeral – a request that was denied, as DailyMail.com exclusively revealed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, with Invictus Games trustee and paralympian Dave Henson (right), attending the 2022 Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chastain led the U.S. delegation to the Games in the Netherlands
Harry and Meghan with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (second from right) and other officials at the 2022 Invictus Games
Harry shakes hands with Joe Biden, as Jill looks on, at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto
However, since entering the White House, the Bidens have kept their distance from the couple, who have settled in California.
Jill was supposed to attend the September 2021 Warrior Games in Orlando, Florida, with Harry, who was already living in California at t hat time.
Harry was inspired to start his Invictus Games after he attended the Warrior Games in Colorado in 2013.
However, the 2021 games were changed to a Zoom event when in-person events were canceled due to the COVID pandemic.
During the online gathering, Harry and Jill praised each other.
‘Thank you for your service and your continued support over all these years,’ Harry told her. ‘It’s been fantastic to see you in action in various parts of the world giving everything that you’ve got to so many people to not just those who wear the uniform but to the families as well. A lot of them wouldn’t be here without you so, thank you.’
She, in returned, thanked the Duke for dedicating himself to ‘lifting up service members from around the globe.’
Jill and Harry’s longstanding friendship stretches back to May 2013 when they met at a reception for US and British wounded soldiers in Washington, D.C.
They appeared to strike up an immediate bond as the following year Jill travelled solo to London for Harry’s inaugural Invictus Games, where they were pictured beaming together during several of the events.
And the First Lady, a voracious reader, is known to have read Prince Harry’s memoir Spare.
Despite their 33-year age gap, Jill and Harry have formed a bond over their shared interest in veterans’ affairs. They are pictured at the 2017 Invictus Games
The duo both have strong ties to the armed forces; Harry spent 10 years serving in the British Army (left), while Jill’s late stepson Beau was a major in the US Military (right)
In September 2014, Jill flew to London to attend the inaugural Invictus Games, and her clear bond with Harry prompted Joe to joke that he was ‘a little worried’
Joe Biden has even joked he was ‘a little worried’ about how much time Harry and Jill were spending together, a gag the then-Vice President repeated in 2016 when his wife again met the Prince at the Games in Orlando.
‘Jill went to London for the last Games. She spent too much damn time with Prince Harry,’ he said.
And Jill has been a public supporter of the prince’s passion for helping veterans.
During a June 2020 visit to the United Kingdom for the G7 summit – where she had separate meetings with Kate Middleton, then-the Duchess of Cambridge, and Queen Elizabeth – Jill Biden touted the great work of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games when she met with British veterans as part of her Joining Forces Initiative.
Harry and Meghan had formally stepped aside from their royal duties at that point.
She had kind words for the games Prince Harry established for disabled veterans and for Walking with the Wounded, another veterans group championed by him.
‘I’ve done a lot with the Invictus Games and Walking with the Wounded. Joe and I met with them. So there’s so many connections and that’s why it was important to hear their stories and hear how they’ve triumphed,’ she said of her interest in veterans’ matters.
Jill Biden served as patron of Walk of America, a 2018 expedition led by Walking with the Wounded, a group Prince Harry was patron of. Harry walked with six veterans – three Americans and three British – during one of their UK legs.
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