Carving his own path. Prince Harry shared his thoughts on how men in the royal family look for partners — and explained how his own journey to find love wasn’t as traditional.
“For so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who fits the mold,” the Duke of Sussex, 38, explained in the first episode of Harry & Meghan, which premiered on Thursday, December 8. “As opposed to someone who perhaps you may be destined to be with. [It’s] the difference between making decisions with your head or your heart.”
The Invictus Games founder said that he prefers to follow his heart, as his late mother, Princess Diana, did. “My mom made most, if not all, of her decisions from the heart,” he explained. “And I am my mother’s son.”
In the second episode of the Netflix series, Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, revealed that her former career as an actress was one of the biggest hurdles the royal family had to overcome when their relationship began.
“I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed,” the BetterUp CIO recalled. “Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves, so I think they were surprised — maybe surprised that the ginger could land such a beautiful woman and such an intelligent woman. But the fact that I was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgment more than anything else at the beginning: ‘Oh, she’s an American actress. This won’t last.’”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock
The Bench author, for her part, hinted that her career was the reason she didn’t fit the aforementioned royal mold. “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funny enough,” the “Archetypes” podcast host, 41, explained. “There’s a big idea of what that looks like, from the U.K. standpoint, Hollywood, and it’s just very easy for them to typecast that.”
The royal family hasn’t publicly commented on the Netflix series, but a source confirmed to Us Weekly that Harry’s relatives weren’t given the opportunity to respond to the claims in the show. “Neither the royals nor Kensington or Buckingham Palace were approached for comment regarding the content of the series,” the insider said on Thursday.
The series, however, began with a disclaimer saying that the royal family was asked to comment and declined. “This is a first-hand account of Harry & Meghan’s story, told with never before seen personal archive,” read the statement. “All interviews were completed by August 2022. Members of the royal family declined to comment on the content within this series.”
