James Phelps Shawn Sprayberry
Invictus Athlete James Phelps knows what it’s like to be in combat — and after serving in Afghanistan with Prince Harry, he can confidently say the Duke of Sussex does, too.
“He truly understands,” James, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly while attending the 2025 Invictus Games at the Vancouver Convention Center on Saturday, February 15. “Like, he’s been through situations like most of us here have, so just the genuine nature of him putting this together for people who have been through similar things.”
James, who competed in the skeleton biathlon, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball, told Us the Duke of Sussex was “over there on the Apache squadron” when he visited one of “our sites” while they were both deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.
“We were working with search and rescue helicopters,” he explained. “So he came over and just did a tour of our squadron and stuff — taking pictures and things. [He was just] a regular, genuine guy. This was 2012 — we had a big attack at Camp Bastion. It was September 2012.”
Prince Harry has remained dedicated to the military following his retirement from the British Royal Army in 2015. The Duke of Sussex is one of many members of the British royal family to serve their country throughout history. Harry was part of the armed forces for 10 years with his service beginning in 2005. One […]
James was deployed multiple times — he was part of a Search and Rescue Squad credited with saving 500 lives — and sought treatment and hospitalization for PTSD. “I got help before it was too late,” he has said previously.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Karwai Tang/WireImage
Prince Harry served in the British military from 2005 to 2015. During that time, he was deployed to Afghanistan twice — flying Apache helicopters from 2012 to 2013 — making him the first member of the royal family to serve in active military service in 30 years.
James’ wife and caretaker, Cynthia, says she has an immense amount of respect for Prince Harry because of his military service and time in-country.
“We have a high regard for him,” Cynthia told Us. “I know James does, because there were two Marines who were killed in action [during] that attack. It was, like, two years after that attack that the Invictus Games were founded. That doesn’t fall by the wayside.”
Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 — a competition for injured, wounded or sick service men and women inspired by his decade-long experience in the armed forces.
“He is the front man on this,” Cynthia says of Harry. “And every time that he and Meghan [Markle] have come together — I mean, they’re hand-in-hand, cheek-to-cheek — [they’re] telling us how much it means to them. There is a huge team behind them as well.”
She added, “Every time we’ve had any contact with them, it is so genuine. They make it feel like it’s just you and them alone in a room. With every contact.”
Prince Harry is “just one of the guys,” according to a blind athlete competing at the 2025 Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded service members and veterans. Retired Army Staff Sergeant Michael Murphy — who lost his eyesight in a December 2018 airfield accident in Volos, Greece — discussed a touching moment with […]
Nearly a decade after they first met while serving in Afghanistan, James and Harry reunited in San Diego in 2023.
“He came down and picked, like, eight of us to have lunch with them,” James told Us. “So I was one of the eight that got to have lunch with him. When we sat down we shared stories about how we had met before — he signed my line badge and gave me a Prince Harry coin. There were no cameras. There was nothing, no publicity. It was just him and a bunch of guys.”
James Phelps Michel Sauret
He added, “He’s amazing. He called me ‘blue beard.’”
James — who started dying his hair and beard blue in 2023 as a “conversations starter” — says the Invictus Games are unlike any other sporting competition on the planet.
“There is nothing like this in the world,” he said, adding that his favorite sport is rugby, even though “skeleton is probably the most adrenaline filled.”
“This has been so inspiring,” he added of the Games. “Just the people here are positively charged — you can almost, like, smell it in the air. Yeah, [an] absolutely amazing environment. There’s so many amazing stories here — people just pushing through diversity and just thriving.”
Reporting by Justin Ravitz
