Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived for their first public appearance as a couple since King Charles’ cancer diagnosis was announced last week.
The pair are in the picturesque ski resort of Whistler in British Columbia, Canada, for a two-day program to highlight next year’s Invictus Winter Games being held in the city.
Meghan looked glamorous in skinny white jeans and a sweater topped with a beige puffer coat, while Harry wore jeans and a black anorak as he arrived for a training session with athletes planning to take part in the 2025 games.
The pair exited the gondola at Whistler’s Blackcomb Mountain shortly after 2:30 p.m. and met three groups of adaptive skiers: a sit-down alpine skier, a stand-up skier and a group of visually impaired athletes.
Meghan looked glamorous in skinny white jeans and a sweater topped with a beige puffer coat, while Harry wore jeans and a black anorak.
Meghan, 42, was clearly having fun despite temperatures hovering around freezing.
The couple arrived in Canada on Tuesday and will stay until Friday, when they will fly back to their home in California.
Alex Cairns, a sit skier from Canada, was the first to meet the Sussexes and demonstrated the sport to them, arriving at the base of the slope to Harry’s applause.
The Whistler games will be the first time Invictus presents winter sports
The couple arrived in Canada on Tuesday and were photographed by DailyMail.com landing in Vancouver shortly after noon Pacific time after a two-hour flight from Santa Barbara, the closest airport to their home in Montecito.
A convoy of cars picked up the famous duo and took them to Whistler, where they will be on Wednesday and Thursday before returning to Vancouver for an event in the Crystal City on Friday.
The couple are then expected to travel home to California on Friday afternoon to join their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, two.
Their trip to Canada comes as the couple is embroiled in a series of controversies: one over their new website Sussex.com and another over Harry’s flying visit to London last week to see King Charles following his cancer diagnosis. .
On Wednesday, Meghan, 42, was forced to issue a statement defending the graphic design company that created the couple’s new website, while Harry faced criticism for the short time he spent in the UK.
Harry’s rush to Britain began with a late-night British Airways flight from LAX that landed in London shortly after 2pm on February 6.
Once there, he was taken to Clarence House for a meeting with his cancer-stricken father that lasted just 30 minutes and did not include his stepmother, Queen Camilla.
The plane remained in Vancouver for 39 minutes before taking off again toward Victoria, where it landed at 12:47 p.m.
His current visit includes two days meeting competitors at the Whistler ski resort and another engagement in Vancouver on Friday.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attend the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in September 2023. The photo now appears on the home page of sussex.com
The 39-year-old then spent the night in a hotel before catching a Delta flight back to Los Angeles, less than 24 hours after his arrival.
Last week it was claimed that Prince Harry “would have gladly agreed” to a meeting with his brother, William, but opted to stay at his hotel.
William, 41, is believed to remain focused on caring for his wife, Kate, who is recovering from her abdominal surgery and will be taking an extended leave from public duties until after Easter.
Harry next appeared in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday, where he hosted the NFL Honors Awards, a televised gala held at the sprawling Resorts World hotel in Sin City.
Presenting the Walter Payton Man of the Year award to Cameron Heyward of the Pittsburgh Steeler, he made a joke about rugby, telling the crowd: “I really love how they stole rugby from us and made it their own.”
‘Instead of passing it backwards, simply pass it forwards. Why not use protections and helmets? Of course.
‘Having an offense and a defense, that makes sense. Why not take a breath every 15 seconds? And you know what? Instead of a 10-month season, let’s make it 18 weeks. Genius.’
Despite his cheerful demeanor on stage, Harry was later photographed looking sad in the hotel’s underground parking lot and did not stick around to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night.
The couple replaced their Archewell website with a site called Sussex.com that includes their biographies and lists their recent activities.
Their “About” page says: “The office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is shaping the future through business and philanthropy.”
The couple’s relaunched website appeared on Monday with Harry’s 358-word biography emphasizing his environmental credentials, despite his penchant for using private jets.
Meghan’s longer biography highlighted her credentials as a philanthropist, but made only one mention of her acting past and none of the royal family.
Critics said the website is an attempt to monetize the couple’s royal connections, leading to a new round of calls for their titles to be removed, including from Meghan’s biographer Tom Bower.
Their ‘About’ page reads: ‘The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is shaping the future through business and philanthropy.
‘This includes: The Archewell Foundation, Archewell Productions, sponsorships, companies and organizations that receive support from the couple, individually and/or together.’
The revamped Sussex.com also highlighted Harry’s Invictus Games initiative, which returns next year with a snow sports edition in Whistler.
During the trip, the pair will meet competitors from the United States, Canada, France, Ukraine and Nigeria, among others, at a training camp at the resort.