Prince Harry in Person: PEOPLE's Royals Editor Shares Insights from This Year's Invictus Games

His world has completely changed, writes PEOPLE’s Michelle Tauber. But some things remain the same

Prince Harry is still a hugger.

So much has changed from the time I first saw him at the Invictus Games in Orlando in 2016 to this week, when I watched him back in action for the 2022 Invictus Games in The Netherlands.

In 2016 — a pre-socially distanced COVID world — I marveled at how many people Harry hugged, and how freely. Everywhere he went, he shared his energy generously, listened intently, and shined his light on all who clamored for their moment of real-life royalty. He was Prince Charming in America's fantasy fairytale kingdom, Walt Disney World, and it seemed as though everyone fell under his spell. And he did it without a crown, without a Dukedom. He did it with empathy and human connection.

"I feel invisible a lot of the time because of the way I look," Katie Kuiper, a former Army staff sergeant who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face, told me at the time. When Harry gave her a congratulatory kiss on the cheek, she said, "He made me feel special." It was, simply, royal magic.

<a href="https://people.com/tag/prince-harry/" data-inlink="true">Prince Harry</a>, Duke of Sussex attends the Sitting Volleyball Competition
Prince Harry. Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Six years later, nearly everything in Harry's life has changed. No longer a bachelor who speaks wistfully of becoming a dad one day ("There have been moments through life, especially when we do a tour abroad, when I think, 'I'd love to have kids now,' " he told PEOPLE in 2016) nor a senior working royal, he is a man who has set his own radical course: a new life in America with wife Meghan Markle and their kids Archie, who will be 3 on May 6, and Lilibet, 10 months.

So, now that he has left Kensington Palace for a castle in California, is the royal magic still there?

Having observed Harry — whose famous red hair remains the easiest way to spot him at the Invictus Games, along with the security detail that precedes his entrance — all week, the answer is yes. He's more guarded than he was six years ago — gone are the days when he casually walked around eating a melting Mickey ice cream bar — but his charm remains very much in effect, and the hugs are as plentiful as they were then.

Meghan and Harry Invictus Games
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry hug Invictus Games athlete Lisa Johnston. Patrick van Katwijk/Getty

"I am my mother's son," he told PEOPLE in this week's cover interview, and that much is clear whenever he interacts with the Invictus athletes and their families. Whether it's getting on his knees to make eye contact with a pair of Dutch kid reporters or visiting Team USA's training room to deliver a game day pep talk, he remains as attentive as ever.

In conversations with more than a dozen Invictus athletes and their family members, they all shared similar gratitude for the opportunity to come together with fellow wounded service members and veterans. They're not trying to figure out whether Harry and Meghan will attend the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. (No doubt one of a multitude of reasons Harry prefers chatting to the athletes rather than reporters.) They're just grateful he's here.

"If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't all be here," says Shawn Runnells, 33, an Army vet who broke his patella in a 2016 training accident and won gold with Team USA in wheelchair rugby. "It's like, 'I needed this so I know everybody else needed this.' "

Like many of the athletes I spoke to, Runnells says adaptive sports have been an indispensable lifeline after his injury.

"It has been a huge pick-me-up from the hole I was in," he says. His injury "brought me down because I was never able to do anything I used to, and this right here . . . this just brought me back, so I can insert all the energy and everything that I have just like this."

Michelle Tauber with Invictus Games athletes
Michelle Tauber and Invictus Games athlete Shawn Runnells. Michelle Tauber

Harry's humor, too, remains a draw. Visiting Team USA's training room, he planted kisses on two of the athletes with shaved heads — Runnells and Josh Smith.

"He was like, can I kiss the lucky egg?" recalls Runnells. "Were were just like, 'Yeah, totally.' " (Since the kiss, says Runnells, "It's crazy the luck I've had. We haven't lost. I caught a van that kept me from showing up late. I got to see the tulip fields. It's been absolutely ridiculous.")

For those with invisible injuries, the wounds often go unnoticed, creating an even greater sense of isolation. Natalie Pye-Keenan, who competed with Team Canada and lives with a seizure disorder following a military training accident, told me that attending the Invictus Games was the first time she met someone who shares her diagnosis.

"I'm so used to people telling me that because they can't see my brain injury, there's nothing wrong with me," says Pye-Keenan, 43, who attended the Games with her sister and husband. "Here, we're all facing the same thing, trying to fit in, trying to find our new normal and nobody cares if you're missing a leg or your injury is neurological. It's refreshing."

Natalie during a brunch organized by True Patriot Love on 16 April where she met the Duke of Sussex
Invictus Games athlete Natalie Pye-Keenan (left). Lyndon Goveas - CFMWS

Meeting both Prince Harry, 37, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, 40, was a highlight for Pye-Keenan, who presented a bottle of maple syrup she'd brought from home.

"He put his hand out, so I shook it," she says. "He's got a good handshake. Which, if you don't have a good handshake, I don't want anything to do with you. He has a really good handshake." And meeting Meghan, who is biracial like Pye-Keenan and her sister, was also meaningful: "There are just certain things you can say that people just understand when you have the same backstory."

For Natalie's husband, Shawn Keenan, the best gift from the Games is a simple one: "I haven't seen her happier in a long time."

Modern royal magic.

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