Prince Harry Says Meghan Markle Saved Him from Being Stuck

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle — (Image credit: Getty)

Prince Harry opened up more about his feelings for wife Meghan Markle yesterday, speaking to trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté in a 90-minute virtual book event to continue to promote his memoir, Spare, released January 10 to much fanfare.

During the intimate conversation, Harry shared how Meghan changed his life, telling Maté, per People, “My wife saved me. I was stuck in this world, and she was from a different world and helped draw me out of that. But none of the elements of my life now would have been possible without me seeing it for myself.”

Harry met Meghan over the summer of 2016. The romance progressed quickly, and the two announced their engagement in November 2017 before marrying on May 19, 2018. They are now parents to son Archie and daughter Lilibet and relocated in 2020 from Harry’s native U.K. to Meghan’s native California.

“My partner is an exceptional human being, and I’m eternally grateful for the wisdom and the space that she has been able to give me,” Harry said.

Like with every couple, Harry and Meghan’s story was not and is not perfect, and Harry recalled a fight between the two during which Meghan threatened to leave Harry, per Page Six.

“I really needed that,” Harry said. “I needed that pushback” amidst the thought of “losing her.”

In Spare, Harry recalled the fight, confessing that he “became touchy” and “snapped” after a conversation with Meghan “took an unexpected turn.” He wrote of becoming “disproportionately, sloppily angry,” addressing Meghan “harshly” enough that “everything in the room [came] to a stop.” After a brief pause, Meghan calmly let Harry know “that she would never stand for being spoken to like that.”

Harry called Meghan’s calm questioning of where he learned to speak to someone like that “a lightbulb moment.”

“An understanding of how these things manifest themselves and how we are so much a product of our upbringing,” Harry said.

Harry has mentioned this incident before, including in 2021, when he said “It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.