Prince Harry went scuba diving in Hawaii with Invictus veteran Gabe George
Since the Sussexit, Prince Harry tries to do something special to mark Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day here in America. One year, he and Meghan visited the Los Angeles National Cemetery and paid their respects to several veterans laid to rest there. In 2021, the Sussexes visited a military base in New Jersey and met with refugees. Last year, Harry went to Hawaii and visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It did not appear, at the time, that Meghan joined him in Hawaii and it was sort of a question mark about whether Harry made the trip solely to visit the memorial. Well, Heart of Invictus reveals that Harry actually went to Hawaii with one of the Team USA veterans showcased in the show!! Invictus athlete Gabe George revealed that they were together in Hawaii and they went scuba diving!
Gabriel “Gabe” George’s participation in the latest Invictus Games sparked many new connections — including with Prince Harry. George, 37, competed for Team USA at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands last year and is among the athletes cameras followed for the new limited series Heart of Invictus, which debuted on Netflix on Wednesday.
The medically retired Navy Corpsman, whose right arm was paralyzed in a 2008 motorcycle accident (later leading to an amputation), exclusively tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that he instantly clicked with Harry when they met at the Games in The Hague.
“Every conversation that I’ve had with him has been just like I’m talking to a friend, a brother, maybe because of the military connection that we have,” George tells PEOPLE of connecting with the Duke of Sussex. “We share where we just left off. The conversation just continues to go on.”
George made his mark at the latest Invictus Games in archery, swimming and rowing, and meeting Harry there (spoiler alert!) led to a scuba dive together in Hawaii in November 2022. Diving is uniquely therapeutic for George’s chronic shoulder pain, as the plunge provides relief and release.
“I got to talk a lot about that with Harry. He was able to understand and to relate,” George tells PEOPLE. “Once he hit the water, it was like I had another buddy. Swimming around, having a good time. You could see the smiles through the bubbles and all that stuff,” he says of the adventure with the Duke of Sussex.
George says participating in the Invictus Games “added a lot of fuel to my life” and furthered his fire for training others in adaptive sports.
“Pickleball is my number one sport right now, and I love to share that. It gave me that fire to let me know that this is still what I want to do,” he tells PEOPLE. “And for people that I’ve met that have never competed, have never tried any kind of sport or may have injuries or illness, when I just bring [pickleball] with me somewhere and introduce it, you can see the life come back into them. That is like I’m giving them a piece of Invictus.”
This is so friggin’ cool. I love that Harry has been hanging out with Invictus athletes and he went on a bros trip to Hawaii with Gabe George. If I can be petty for a moment, it shows you that Harry and Meghan really have found a way to travel, take vacations, work, play and live their lives without the Salt Island asylum knowing what they’re up to. It’s amazing. And Gabe George seems like such a cool guy too.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
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