The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to the South American country will start on Aug. 15.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Colombia tour is about to kick off.
New details surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to the South American country have emerged before it begins on Aug. 15.
Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, will start their trip in Bogotá with a welcome from Vice President Francia Márquez and her husband, Rafael Yerney Pinillo. Márquez, who is the first Black woman to hold the position in Colombia, formally announced the couple’s visit on Aug. 1, saying they “kindly accepted my invitation to visit our beautiful country.”
Continuing their work through the Archewell Foundation surrounding the digital world and its effect on young people, Prince Harry and Meghan will spend part of their first day in Colombia doing an Insight Session at a school. They’ll also participate in a summit gathering experts, activists and community members working to create more positive online environments.
The couple recently appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to discuss a new initiative called The Parents Network, which supports parents whose children have been impacted by traumas related to social media use. Their visit comes ahead of the first World Ministerial Conference on the Elimination of Violence Against Children, taking place in Colombia this November.
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Meghan and Prince Harry will also spend Aug. 16 in Bogotá, where they’ll visit with students to highlight emotional well-being in education, attend a luncheon hosted by Vice President Márquez and get together with Colombia’s Invictus Games competitors. Colombia became the first South American country to join Prince Harry’s adaptive sports event for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans, competing at the Düsseldorf Invictus Games in September 2023.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will also visit Cartagena and Cali during their trip.
The visit marks Prince Harry and Meghan’s first joint visit to Colombia, where the Duchess of Sussex may use her Spanish-speaking skills. She learned the language while interning at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and previously displayed her language ability during a 2020 charity visit in Los Angeles.
“She spoke Spanish perfectly with one young woman,” Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, a group that supports people moving on after incarceration or gang involvement, told Soap 24h. “She just went right into Spanish, which was a revelation — and it was very good.”
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The Colombia trip comes just months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex traveled to Nigeria, where they highlighted the Archewell Foundation’s mental health initiatives for young people and highlighted the Invictus Games. The trip was especially sentimental for Meghan, who revealed on her Archetypes podcast that she learned she is 43% Nigerian through a genealogy test.
Speaking to Soap 24h on the three-day tour in Africa, Prince Harry told Soap 24h that making personal connections on the ground meant everything to him and Meghan.
“It is hugely important for us to meet directly with people, supporting our causes and listening, in order to bring about solutions, support and positive change,” Prince Harry said.
