How Controversy Only Brought Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Closer
Meghan Markle Shares PDA Video With Prince Harry From Beyoncé Concert Date Night
No longer confined to the royal family’s policy of never complaining and never explaining, Prince Harry decided he would say something about the not-infrequent rumors that he and Meghan Markle are on the verge of splitting up.Â
âApparently we’ve bought or moved house 10, 12 times,” he said Dec. 4 at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, per People. “We’ve apparently divorced maybe 10, 12 times as well. So it’s just, like, what? It’s hard to keep up with, but that’s why you just sort of ignore it.”
Overall, he feels sorriest for “the trolls” who’ve invested in and perpetuated such a narrative. Which, no matter how happy Harry and Meghan seem to be IRL, is a storyline that just won’t rest.
It’s been seven years since now-King Charles III walked Meghan down the aisle in lieu of her absent father when she married into the House of Windsor. And though she and Harry have long since found their footing as California transplants, they’ve remained the target of pointed criticism in some circles no matter what they do.
Almost as if they’d never left England, where Harry recently lost the latest round in his years-long legal battle over who should be responsible for providing security for him and his family in the U.K., and subsequently revealed that his father isn’t speaking to him.
âHe wonât speak to me because of this security stuff,â Harry told the BBC. âBut it would be nice to reconcile.â
In the meantime, the 40-year-old father of two added, “I canât see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point. Itâs really quite sad that I wonât be able to show my children my homeland.”
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Though most of the time, Harry sounds pretty content with his choice to leave the U.K. and live in a land where he’s at least the king of his wife’s heart and Meghan is free to sell jam and blow people’s minds with how she makes pasta.
His and Meghan’s decision to step back from senior royal duties in 2020 was ultimately framed as a mental health-salvaging gesture for both of them. But it also turned into a de facto cutting of tiesâfirst with the institution, Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II determining that part-time or remote work wouldn’t cut it, and then ultimately with most of Harry’s family after her death in 2022.
And he has always maintained that estrangement was never his intention and he holds out hope for reconciliation.
Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu via Getty Images
But some U.K. publications, not to mention “the trolls” (in Harry’s words) who fuel the nastier trending topics on social media, are still relentless in their disparagement of both Harry and Meghan for spilling the family beans in interviews (and their 2022 Netflix docuseries and his 2023 memoir Spare…). Harry has chalked up much of it to retaliation against him (and his family) for taking several publishers to court in recent years.
“I’ve seen stories written about myself not exactly based in reality,” Harry said in his December chat with DealBook founder Andrew Ross Sorkin. “When you grow up with that environment, you find yourself questioning the validity of the information, but also what other people are thinking as well, and how dangerous it can be over the course of time.”
He continued, “When you are kind of trapped within this bubble, it kind of feels like there’s no way out. What happened to my mom and the fact that I was a kid and felt helpless, there comes the inner turmoil. I felt helpless. One of my biggest weaknesses is feeling helpless. What worried me most was worrying that would happen to me, or to my wife, or to my kids.”
Craig Barritt/Getty Images for TIME
And, according to Meghan, what she’s shared so far has been just the tip of her iceberg.
“When youâve been through any level of pain or trauma, part of our healing journeyâcertainly part of mineâis being able to be really open about it,” Meghan said of having suicidal thoughts while pregnant with their now-6-year-old son Archie, speaking with CBS Sunday Morningâs Jane Pauley in an interview that aired Aug. 4. “I havenât really scraped the surface on my experience, but I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way. And I would never want someone else to be making those plans, and I would never want someone else to not be believed.”
Of course, adversity isn’t how everyone would characterize what Harry and Meghan have been through. They’re still rich, still famous and still the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Archie and his 3-year-old sister Lilibet, while title-less at birth, are now even a prince and princess as grandchildren of the reigning monarch.
And this branch of the royal family has plenty of fans, including ones behind the kinder hashtags who are are quick to point out the institution’s perceived failings and defend the ones who were smart enough to get away from the onslaught.Â
“It’s like living through a soap opera where everyone else views you as entertainment,” Harry reflected in their Netflix series Harry & Meghan. “I felt really distant from my family, which was really interesting because of so much of how they operate is about what it looks like rather than what it feels like. And it looked cold, but it also felt cold.”
When Spare came out, he told ABC News’ Michael Strahan that with “everybody who has a large family, a family that you’ve been born into, there becomes a point when the family that you’ve created…becomes the priority over the family that you were born into.”
So, he explained, the choice to leave “was very hard. But that was my thinking and the process in which I went through.”
And, truth be told, after the unprecedented airing of the laundry starting with Meghan’s November 2020 New York Times op-Ed revealing a past miscarriage, through their eye-opening 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview and through the publicity surrounding Harry’s book in early 2023, they have not shared much about their private life at all.
“I wasn’t planning to say anything shocking,” Meghan told Oprah. “I’m just telling you what happened. It’s been a lot.”
But, much as how they’ve always had to be since Meghan was first revealed to be Harry’s girlfriend in late 2016, the duo have powered through all the noise togetherâand their bond has only strengthened in the process of changing countries and having two children.
“We’ve got our family,” Harry told Oprah. “We’ve got, you know, the four of us and our two dogs, and it’s great.”
Nor has being questioned every step of the wayâbasically, the reaction to everything they do can be considered mixedâlessened their resolve to effect change and pay their good fortune forward.
Andrew Esiebo/Getty Images for The Archewell Foundation
“It is hugely important for us to meet directly with people, supporting our causes and listening, in order to bring about solutions, support and positive change,” Harry told People during their three-day tour of Nigeria in May 2024, before which he was in London to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games. “There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom, so we look forward to traveling more because the work matters.”
Meghan called the trip “incredibly memorable and special,” which was “the best souvenir to take with usâall the memories we’ve made.”
Nodding to the GEANCO Foundation-sponsored mental health summit she attended at the Lightway Academy in Abuja, where she met with a number of students, she said she saw herself in all of the kids.
“It’s what we see in our own children,” Meghan said, “to give them that promise and excitement for their futures.”
And, referring to herself and Harry, she noted, “We’re doing just great. And happy to be watching our family grow up and evolve. Of course, I’m happy. We’re really happy.”
Meanwhile, they weren’t in Nigeria on behalf of the Crown, but they were still given the ultimate VIP treatment by local leaders. And it may as well have been an official royal tour in some ways: Meghan wore a dozen outfits, each one micro-analyzed for significance, and there was the requisite homage-to-Princess Diana headline in response to the olive-green blazer over an all-white ensemble that she chose for the flight back home
Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Images
In February 2024, while in Whistler, B.C., to scope out the location of the 2025 Invictus Games, where the field comprises military vets and active servicemen and women who were hurt while serving their countries, he spoke about families rising to the occasion when a loved one is injured or ill.
“Throughout all of these families, I see it on a day-to-day basis, again, the strength of the family unit coming together,” Harry told Good Morning America. “So, yeah, I think any illness, any sickness, brings families together. I see it time and time again, and that makes me very happy.”
Not coincidentally, he had just been in the U.K. visiting his father after Charles shared that he’d been diagnosed with cancer.
“I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could,” Harry said. “Look, I love my family. The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.”
KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images
He did not, however, catch the king when he was in London for the Invictus anniversary. According to a spokesperson for Harry, a meeting wasn’t possible “due to His Majesty’s full program,” but he was “understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities” and hoped to see him soon.
Back at his home, however, in Montecito, Calif., Harry’s kids were “amazing,” as Meghan told Jane Pauley. “But all you want to do as parents is protect them.”
She said on the Jamie Kern Lima Show in April that the best part about being a mom was just showing up for her kids every day.
“It’s not about the grandeur of a gesture,” the 43-year-old said. “It’s about, ‘I see you. I’m nurturing and I see you so deeply and I love being able to see your growth.’ I’m just so proud of them.”
At the TIME100Summit last month, Meghan also said she was the happiest she’s ever been, a 180-degree turn from when she told ITV’s Tom Bradby of her experience so far as a royal, “Itâs not enough to survive somethingâthat’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive and feel happy.”
But now, she told TIME CEO Jessica Sibley, “To have a husband and a partner who is so supportive and to have healthy kids that are so joyful in the free-ness of their life and the safety in their life that we create for them.”
“Of all the things that have happened in my life,” Meghan added, “I never would have imagined getting here.”
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Harry said at the DealBook Summit that not paying attention to what was written about him by the press or on social media had been key to reclaiming control of his own story.
“Once you stop reading the stuff about yourself, you automatically remove the power from their hands,” he explained. “With that element of fear comes an element of control. And one of the reasons I probably didn’t, I guess, remove myself from that situation sooner was that very fear: ‘Well, they control the narrative, whatever I do or say, they can effectively control me and keep me in that space.'”
Asked what he hoped to be known for in 30 years’ time, Harry said he wanted to be someone known for sticking to his principles. But “the main goal for me at the moment,” he said, “is being the best husband and the best dad that I can be.”
And in three minutes’ time, you can see how Archie and Lilibet are growing up with the sort of freedom Harry and Meghan do not take for granted:
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Mom & Daughter
Meghan and Princess Lilibet enjoyed some time in the garden in April 2025.
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Smelling the Roses
Prince Archie also enjoyed examining the roses in a garden in April 2025.
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Dad & Daughter
Harry and Princess Lilibet shared a sweet moment on a boat ride in March 2025.
Meghan Markle/Instagram
Valentine’s Day 2025
Prince Archie enjoyed the holiday celebration with fresh strawberries to boot.
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Auntie Serena Williams
Princess Lilibet played a game with her mom’s friend in early 2025.
SussexRoyal/Instagram
Archie and His Papa
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex included this image of their “2019 in review” Instagram video on New Year’s Eve.
Toby Melville – Pool/Getty Images
South Africa Tour
In 2019, the couple brought Archie, then 3 months old, on their Royal tour of South Africa, during which they met Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Duke of Sussex / @SaveChildrenUK / Shutterstock
Birthday Story Time
Meghan was seen reading the book Duck! Rabbit!” to Archie on his first birthday, May 6, 2021.
DOMINIC LIPINSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Royal Baby
Meghan and Harry present their newborn son Prince Archie, then known as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England in May 2021.
(Originally published May 19, 2024, at 3 a.m. PT)
Watch E! News weeknights Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., only on E!.
