Prince Harry, Jill Biden unite for Warrior Games amid Meghan Markle ‘political ambitions’
Prince Harry and US First Lady Jill Biden have teamed up as questions surround Meghan Markle’s political desires.
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Britain’s Prince Harry and US First Lady Jill Biden paid homage to US veterans in a virtual ceremony for the Warrior Games, a sports competition for wounded US military veterans canceled this year over the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2021 Games had been due to begin in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, but were canceled last month as Covid-19 surged in the southern US state.
The Warrior Games “inspired me to create the Invictus Games,” a similar multi-national sports event for wounded service members and veterans, said the Duke of Sussex at the virtual event.
Harry, a combat veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan, first attended the US Department of Defense Warrior Games in 2013 in Colorado. He founded the Invictus Games the following year.
“These games are so important,” said Harry, speaking from California where he is based with his wife, Meghan Markle.
Regretting he would not be able to support competitors this year at the annual games, he recalled the event was “ultimately the reminder of service both at home and overseas.” “It is about caring for our physical as well as our mental fitness of those that have sacrificed so much,” he said.
The wife of US President Joe Biden spoke about the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that led to the war in Afghanistan that ended in August 20 years later.
“There was a call to defend the values we hold dear as we waged a global war on terror and a courageous group of men and women stepped forward to say: Me, I will go,” she said.
“And that includes you, Harry. You live by a simple principle, served together, recover together,” she told the Duke.
“It’s a philosophy not limited by the flag, where your brothers and sisters in arms are connected by something so much deeper than the borders that separate us, and you’ve dedicated your time, talent and heart to lifting up service members from around the globe.” Biden’s stepson, the late Beau Biden, was a US army veteran and served one year in Iraq during the war.
The First Lady “has a long history of supporting the adaptive sporting community,” the Sunday statement read.
At the virtual event, also attended by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, she praised the “courage, sacrifice and resilience” of the wounded service members, who trained for months before seeing the Paralympic-style competition cancelled at the last minute.
“By being a part of the Warrior Games, you have not only overcome injuries, both visible and invisible, you show us all that our challenges never have to define us,” she concluded.
At the 2013 Warrior Games, Jill and Harry struck up such a rapport that she flew to London in 2014 for his inaugural Invictus Games.
When Harry took the Games to Orlando, Florida two years later he was spotted watching wheelchair basketball with the then-second lady of the United States.
Then-Vice-President Joe Biden almost seemed jealous of the new friendship: “Jill went to London for the last Games. She spent too much damn time with Prince Harry!”
“I read in The Guardian, or one of them, and it says – I’m paraphrasing – everywhere Prince Harry went, he had this blonde woman on his arm. The vice-president’s wife! I’m a little worried here, you know what I mean?”
Jill and Harry reunited in 2017 when the games were hosted in Toronto, Canada. That is also where Harry stepped out publicly with his new American girlfriend for the first time.
It isn’t known if Meghan Markle ever met the Bidens, but in 2020 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex showed support for their preferred presidential candidate over the incumbent Donald Trump.
The royals urged Americans to vote, with Harry saying that as a British royal, he has never had the privilege to vote.
In their Time 100 video they urged viewers to reject “hate speech, misinformation and online negativity” in “the most important election of our lifetime” echoing Joe Biden’s message.
Since she is an American citizen, pundits believe Markle would have cast her ballot for the Biden-Harris team.
Vanity Fair reported on Markle’s possible presidential ambitions which may increasingly come into focus as 2024 approaches.
“One of the reasons she was so keen not to give up her American citizenship was so she had the option to go into politics,” a close friend of the royal told Vanity Fair. “I think if Meghan and Harry ever gave up their titles she would seriously consider running for president.”
The Duchess of Sussex, however, was not included in the list of participants for Monday’s event.
It comes as Markle’s brother has written another letter to her and Prince Harry, a trailer for Big Brother VIP has revealed.
The second teaser, shows Thomas Markle Jr. sitting in the diary room of the reality show announcing plans to write to his half-sister.
In May 2018, he wrote an explosive open letter telling Meghan to call off the upcoming nuptials, blasting it as a “fake fairy tale”.
However, he reportedly later backtracked on the letter, which he said was written in a “moment of madness”.
Meanwhile, in the first promo for the show, Thomas claimed he had warned Prince Harry about his half-sister before they married.
“I’m Meghan Markle’s brother, I’m the biggest brother of them all,” he said in the introduction video.
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