Prince Harry recalls his first text message with Meghan Markle and the ‘strange’ connection to Princess Diana

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023 Editor

The Duke of Sussex said that he was “texting like a teenager” when he first connected with Meghan Markle

In Spare, Prince Harry speculates that Princess Diana may have played a role in bringing him and Meghan Markle together.

Last week, the Duke of Sussex, 38, published an unprecedented book in which he reflected on his royal childhood, military duty in Afghanistan, and how everything changed when he met his future bride. Prince Harry revealed the complete tale of how he met Meghan, stating that he was blown away by her beauty the first time he saw her portrait on Instagram.

Meghan, 41, posed for a selfie with a common friend named Violet, and Harry inquired about her contact information on July 1, 2016, his late mother’s birthday.

Meghan messaged Prince Harry first on Instagram, and they immediately bonded over a shared love of Africa, as Harry’s feed was filled with photos from the country (a revelation the couple first made in Harry & Meghan, now streaming on Netflix).

“Eventually, we exchanged phone numbers, and mitigated the conversation over to text, going late into the night,” Harry wrote in Spare, adding that he was “texting like a teenager” through the following day.

“It occurred to me how uncanny, how surreal, how bizarre, that this marathon conversation should have begun on July 1, 2016. My mother’s fifty-fifth birthday,” he added.

Princess Diana tragically died in a vehicle crash in Paris at the age of 36 in 1997, and Prince Harry stated that ten years later, he tearfully drove through the same tunnel.

Harry stated in a passage released ahead of the release of Spare that speeding through the Pont de l’Alma in 2007 — and reaching the other side — seemed strange.

“She’s dead, I thought. My God, she’s really gone for good,” he wrote.

Prince Harry opened up about mourning his mother and how he feels her spirit more than ever.

“I struggled for years to accept or even speak about my mother’s death. I was unable to process that she was gone,” the Duke of Sussex said “I’m not sure anyone can ever truly have closure when they lose a 2 parent, or anyone for that matter, especially when that grief may be the only thing left of them.

“Personally, I had to go through a lot of internal work and experience to finally face it, in order to rid myself of the pain that was held or trapped in my mind and body. Serving in the military was a turning point — it saved me and gave me purpose in the darkest of times,” he explains. “Therapy also allowed me the space to address much of my trauma and grief by removing life’s filters — cleaning the windshield, and seeing life as it is, rather than through the fog.”

The healing process has allowed me to get to a place where I now feel the presence of my mum more than ever before,” Prince Harry says of Princess Diana. “She’s with me all the time — my guardian angel.”