Prince Harry’s California work life is merging with the Invictus Games, which he founded as a working royal.
Digital mental health and coaching service BetterUp—of which Prince Harry is chief impact officer—has been announced as the official mental fitness coaching tool of the Invictus Games Foundation this week.
The announcement that the company has partnered with Harry’s Invictus Games Foundation is an example of how the prince’s professional outputs are linking with and informing his charitable endeavors.
It comes ahead of the Invictus Games 2022 event which will be held in the Netherlands from April 16-22. This week it was confirmed that Harry would be accompanied by his wife, Meghan Markle, to the events in their first joint European trip since stepping-down as full-time working members of the royal family.
In a post to Twitter announcing the new partnership the virtual coaching initiative stated:
“BetterUp is now the official mental fitness coaching tool of the Invictus Games Foundation!
“Through our partnership with @WeAreInvictus, we’ll support service members from around the world and empower them as they transition from military to civilian life.”
For Harry, the Invictus Games are “about empowering every single person around the world. It’s a worldwide display of resilience, determination, and community for which each of us can draw inspiration,” reads a statement released by the prince in his capacities as both the chief impact officer of BetterUp and founding patron of the Invictus Games Foundation.
“I couldn’t think of a better new partner for the Invictus Games Foundation than the mental fitness platform BetterUp. The mind is like a muscle: it needs to be honed, trained, rehabbed, and coached.
“The men and women I served with understand this, the Invictus community knows this, and now the world is beginning to see it too.
“I’m honoured to bring the work we do at BetterUp to Invictus and look forward to expanding the support systems that service members and veterans depend on to achieve remarkable feats,” the statement reads.
Joining BetterUp
Harry, a vocal advocate for mental health for many years, joined virtual coaching pioneer BetterUp in March 2021. “Mmy goal is to lift up critical dialogues around mental health, build supportive and compassionate communities, and foster an environment for honest and vulnerable conversations,” he said at the time. “And my hope is to help people develop their inner strength, resilience, and confidence.”
The prince has also testified to the organization’s product, which provides virtual life coaching, different to traditional talking therapy in its “present and future” focus as opposed to “past, present and future”.
“I’ve personally found working with a BetterUp coach to be invaluable,” Harry said upon his appointment with the company, “I was matched with a truly awesome coach who has given me sound advice and a fresh perspective.”
As part of the partnership, BetterUp will provide 500 Invictus Games Foundation members with access to their platform of virtual coaching which focuses on mental wellbeing, career development, time management and communication.
Netflix Also Linked to Games Through Prince
The prince’s other professional deals also have strong links to his charitable work.
In 2021 it was announced that another of his business partners would team up with the foundation to create a docuseries following the 2022 Netherlands games.
The Netflix series Heart of Invictus will be produced jointly between Archewell Productions—the digital arm of the Sussexes’ charitable organization—and the Invictus Games Foundation, as part of a multi-million dollar deal signed in 2020 by the royal couple.
Harry hopes the series will “give communities around the world a window into the moving and uplifting stories of these competitors on their path to the Netherlands next year,” he said in a statement released at the time.
The Invictus Games is one of Harry’s most important charitable endeavors and was founded to provide a public platform on which to showcase the physical and mental resilience of wounded, sick and injured service personnel.
The inaugural events were held in London in 2014 and were attended by Harry, Prince Charles, Prince William, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
The 2022 games held in The Hague, Netherlands were due to take place in 2020 but were postponed because of the pandemic. Alongside Harry and Meghan, the Dutch King Willem-Alexander has also confirmed his attendance and representatives of the 20 nations taking part are also expected to be present at different events.
