Prince Harry seems to have made a surprise appearance from his new $14.7m Montecito mansion during a video call with Invictus Games competitors.
The Duke of Sussex, 35, recently moved into the sprawling nine-bedroom and 16-bathroom home in upscale Montecito, Santa Barbara, with his wife Meghan Markle and their son Archie, now one.
In a clip posted to the competition’s Instagram page today, Harry appeared via video link to discuss the importance of their online community with the members of the multi-sport event, which was founded by the royal in 2014.
He also touched on the power of sport before suggesting it’s imperative to check in on one another ‘even if your life is on track’.
Scroll down for video
Prince Harry (pictured) seems to have made a surprise appearance from his new $14.7m Montecito mansion during a video call with Invictus Games competitors
The Duke of Sussex, 35, recently moved into the sprawling nine-bedroom and 16-bathroom home in upscale Montecito, Santa Barbara (pictured), with his wife Meghan Markle and their son Archie, now one
The Duke joined the competitors after they took part in a virtual ‘At Home Superhero Tri’ which saw the British and Australian members take on different stages of a triathlon while in different countries.
Harry was joined on screen by Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers, as well as Bruno, Mark and Jen, who had each racked up a lot of mileage over the past few weeks.
During their ten minute conversation, Harry discussed the importance of having an online community to help everyone keep in touch with one another.
‘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.’
In a clip posted to the competition’s Instagram page today, Harry (pictured bottom right) appeared via video link to discuss the importance of their online community with the members of the multi-sport event, which was founded by the royal in 2014
Harry (seen bottom left) also touched on the power of sport before suggesting it’s imperative to check in on one another ‘even if your life is on track’
The royal added: ‘Arguably all of us want to have or feel the comfort to know that we’ve got it in case we need it.
‘I think more than anything else that we touch upon as well, you’ve got the banter there. And you know that if you haven’t heard from someone for a while, the first thing you need to do is check on them.
‘Just because your life is sort of on track and everything’s going according to plan, there’s other people you may not have heard of.
He added: ‘You might just get the answer of “Yeah, I’m fine”. But you guys are the ones that are going to dig a little bit deeper and say “fine is not the answer that I was looking for. I’m actually asking how you are?”
Harry’s appearance comes after Meghan seemed to give fans a glimpse inside the couple’s dream California home – complete with views of the rolling Montecito hills and vintage-inspired furniture (pictured)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games 2017 in Canada
‘And it is stressful. The injuries you guys have sustained anyway is one part of it but then how everybody’s being forced to live now, it’s really, really different.’
The Invictus Games, which brings together current and former wounded, injured or sick servicemen and women from more than 20 countries, was due to be held in The Hague this year.
But the competition was postponed due to the coronavirus, however, the duke excitedly revealed in the clip, that the ‘dates of the new games have now been decided’.
Harry credited sport with helping bring people ‘back from the darkest places’ as he appeared in a new Netflix documentary recently
When Harry first popped up on the screen, JJ joked: ‘I tried to book Captain America, but I managed to get Captain Wales instead.’
Father-of-one Harry quickly replied: ‘The banter certainly hasn’t improved in the last few months, that’s for sure.’
Speaking about the challenge that the competitors undertook recently, 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.
He added: ‘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.’