Princess Diana & Meghan Markle Are Super Similar, According To Prince Harry
It's why he fell for her so quickly.
When Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, exited the monarchy stage left, it wasn’t an act of privacy. Speaking to Oprah in March 2021, Harry told the world that it was an act of self-preservation. But just as importantly, it was an act of taking control — control of their lives and the narrative surrounding them. Their new Netflix documentary does just that, telling their story in their own words. Prince Harry’s quotes about Diana and Meghan Markle’s similarities are super touching and offer real insight into why they clicked.
Spoilers for Harry & Meghan Volume 1 follow. Harry and Meghan’s relationship was initially revealed to be more than a rumor in November 2018, and when that happened, there were a lot of questions from the general public. On the one hand, there was a lot of approval from Americans; Meghan was one of us, a commoner, swept away all Disney-like by a real-life Prince.
But she was also an actor, and not like, a high-profile A-list actor. She was a working actor on a mid-tier cable show (hello, Suits), the kind that goes into syndication and pays decent money to live on, a gig that brings solid success without massive fame. What could she and Harry have in common? What did she see in this posh boy who grew up with his every life step documented? What did he see in her, a woman who did not measure success in box office dollars but in having accomplished her dream well enough to do it for a living and was content with that?
Harry’s answer is so standard it’s almost a little startling. She reminded him of his mother.
The documentary begins by explaining Harry’s place in the royal family, what the Windsors mean to the general public and a little history for those who might need it. But about halfway into the first episode, Harry and Meghan get into their story, and Harry explains what it was about her that made him fall in love and let his guard down.
“So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum. She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence,” Harry says in the documentary. “She has this warmth about her.”
That similarity ran closer than he knew. As the two documented with Oprah, Meghan’s response to living within the royal bubble wound up similar to Diana’s, with her suffering from deep depression. Harry did what he thought best and removed her from the situation before he lost her too.
In the documentary, Harry admits, “I accept and understand there are people around the world who disagree with what I’ve done and how I’ve done it.” However, he’s not going to apologize. “I knew that I had to do everything that I could to protect my family.”
Harry & Meghan Volume 1 is streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 follows on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.
