Prince Harry received a meaningful gift for his wife Meghan Markle during his trip to Ukraine on Friday.
The Duke of Sussex, who turned 41 today, visited Kyiv, the country’s capital, with a team from his Invictus Games Foundation, after first gaining permission from his wife and the British government, Harry said.
According to a statement from his office, obtained by Reuters, Harry’s charity plans to help rehabilitate wounded soldiers.
During his visit, King Charles’s youngest son received two gifts from a Ukrainian businesswoman named Mariia Didkovska, who is running a project to provide financial support to the military hospital in Kyiv.
He was given a plate for Meghan with an inscription celebrating Kyiv taken from the writings of a famous Ukrainian poet and translator. It reads: ‘Kyiv stretches behind me in dreams.’
As she presented the plate, a visibly nervous Mariia, who runs a restaurant and a bar in Kyiv, said: ‘And this is for your wife.’
She added: ‘You are always welcome to Kyiv. Thank you a million times for everything you do.’
Earlier in the exchange, Mariia gave Harry a bottle of Victoire de la Dignité champagne encased in a wooden box, suggesting that it be saved for the ‘special day when we celebrate our victory.’
Prince Harry received a gift for his wife Meghan Markle during his visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday
A businesswoman named Mariia Didkovska (pictured), who is running a project to provide financial support to the military hospital in Kyiv, gifted Harry two presents
Accepting the bottle, the royal father-of-two replied: ‘Sooner rather than later.’
Victoire de la Dignité is a special edition of a champagne from the French producer Champagne Pierre Morlet.
According to Forbes, Mariia’s project has already been able to support the hospital in buying new surgery and endoscopy equipment.
It comes after Meghan celebrated the return of her ‘beau’ Prince Harry after his four-day visit to the UK, which included a reunion with his father.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, commemorated the Duke’s return to Montecito – just in time for his birthday – with a post on the As Ever social media page.
In the Instagram story, the mother-of-two can be seen pouring two glasses of her own brand of wine on an ornately adorned wooden board outside, surrounded by flowers.
It comes amid a poignant time for the family, with Harry meeting King Charles face-to-face for the first time in 19 months; before making a trip to Ukraine in which he defended his recent run of interviews and the publication of tell-all book Spare.
The Duke of Sussex – who turned 41 today – described the monarch as doing well after a long-awaited reconciliation meeting at Clarence House.
Meghan Markle celebrated the return of her ‘beau’ Prince Harry after his four-day visit to the UK resulted in a reunion with his father. Both pictured last year
The Duke of Sussex described the monarch as doing well after a long-awaited reconciliation meeting at Clarence House. Pictured last week during a visit to take part in a panel discussion on how social action positively impacts mental health
On Wednesday, he said of Charles ‘Yes he’s great, thank you’ when asked about the catch-up during a reception for the Invictus Games, which he launched in 2014 as a tournament for injured service personnel and veterans.
Appearing relaxed, smiling and upbeat, Harry mingled with corporate sponsors and government ministers as he attended the event in The Gherkin, London, on September 10 ahead of a speech outlining the next 10 years of the Games.
The prince arrived at the event 40 minutes later than planned after travelling directly from a private tea with his father, which lasted for 55 minutes.
It was their first meeting in 19 months since the Duke flew to the UK to see Charles in February 2024.
He was spotted being driven into the royal residence in a black Range Rover at 5.20pm before leaving in the same car at around 6.15pm.
Earlier, the King was seen arriving at Clarence House at 4pm, having landed at RAF Northolt at around 3pm following a flight from Aberdeen Airport. Charles met with Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, where he was invested with an MBE.
Charles had flown to the capital after a stay at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire, and flew down without the Queen.
Harry, his driver and bodyguard were said to have used the visitor’s entrance to Clarence House – rather than entering via the gate on The Mall which is used by members of the Royal Family.
Prince Harry says his tell-all memoir Spare and Netflix series were ‘not about revenge’ (pictured)
Pictured: Prince Harry arrives for a visit to the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham last Tuesday
It was the first time the prince had seen his father in 19 months. Although he says the ‘focus really has to be on my dad’ in the next year, he told The Guardian during an interview in Kyiv,his ‘conscience is clear’.
And he appeared to make a thinly veiled swipe at his brother Prince William as he said: ‘You cannot have reconciliation before you have truth.’
He added: ‘I know that (speaking out) annoys some people and it goes against the narrative.
‘The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.’
He added: ‘I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.’
‘It is not about revenge, it is about accountability,’ he says.
Harry’s 416-page tome Spare made a series of jaw-dropping claims and laid bare the rift within the Royal Family.
One accusation aimed at his brother accused William of leaving Harry with visible ‘scrapes and bruises’ after an alleged attack.
Harry and Meghan during their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. Both pictured during
He claimed: ‘(William) grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.’
It also claimed William teased Harry about his panic attacks and that King Charles put his own interests above his second son, and saw Harry reference taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms and his enjoyment of the TV show Friends.
The Duke of Sussex’s controversial memoir became the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book ever after being published by Penguin Random House in January 2023.
He has also given a number of contentious interviews to Oprah Winfrey and the BBC that created further rifts within the family, claiming in May his father ‘won’t speak to me because of this security stuff’, referring to his failed attempts to retain taxpayer-funded security for his UK visits.
It comes after a royal source told the Daily Mail that the past week where Harry spent four days in the UK could be the start of Harry, Meghan and their two children being part of a ‘functioning wider family again’.
Last Thursday, Harry was all smiles as he was greeted at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in White City at about 1pm and hugged former Army captain David Henson.
The ex-Royal Engineer served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games and attended Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in 2018.
Mr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics at Imperial.
King Charles arrives at Clarence House, in London, ahead of a meeting with his son Harry . Pictured last week
Harry is in Kyiv as part of his work for the Invictus Games and to support Ukraine’s tens of thousands of injured veterans
Harry and William attending the unveiling of a statue of their mother at The Sunken Garden in Kensington on July 1, 2021
Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013, which was the forerunner of Imperial’s new centre which was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.
Clinically-driven trauma injury research is carried out at the building, and the King visited in February to highlight support for injured soldiers in Ukraine.
Harry’s office said that his foundation has donated $500,000 (£370,000) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine, including helping the World Health Organization with evacuations and work developing prosthetics.
The Duke visited the centre to learn more about its work, especially an increased focus on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.
‘No single organisation can solve this alone,’ Harry said in a statement. ‘Gaza now has the highest density of child amputees in the world and in history.’
The King is said to be keen to rebuild his relationship with his son and wants to spend time with his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet, whom he has not seen for three years.
‘It’s become clear that Harry now regrets some of his actions. He wants to reset his relationship with his family and with the people of the UK,’ an insider has said.
‘It’s hard to see him ever coming back to live in Britain but this may be the start of something that at least allows them to be a functioning wider family again.’
It came after Prince Harry’s spokesman said he ‘loved’ being back in the UK and ‘catching up’ with his good causes and friends.
The Duke of Sussex wrapped up his trip with a visit to a charity set up in memory of his mother, one day after reuniting with the King for the first time in 19 months.
His spokesperson gave an upbeat review of the UK tour, saying: ‘He’s obviously loved being back in the UK, catching up with old friends, colleagues and just generally being able to support the incredible work of the causes that mean so much to him.’
The Duke carried out his final engagement on Friday, an event linked to the Diana Award, in central London as he brought his four-day solo trip to a close.
In May, after losing his High Court battle with the Home Office, Harry himself told the BBC that he would ‘would love a reconciliation’ with the Royal Family, adding: ‘There’s no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious.’
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