What Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Taught Me About Love

To say that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was shocking is an understatement. The couple shared a number of stunning and heartbreaking revelations that will no doubt leave the Royal Family — and the world — baffled for years to come.

Nothing shocks me though.

I can relate to Meghan’s struggles especially being disliked for being different. But I have only one big takeaway from the interview which I have already applied to my own relationship, and that is:

Prince Harry and Meghan Marke are a team.

A very strong team. They have each other backs for good and for worse.

Harry and Meghan have been through a lot: from getting scrutinized by the public and media, having to cope with privacy invasion, to turbulent family dramas, relocation to the United States, lawsuits and just the latest tell-all Oprah interview.

This couple proves that you can come out strong from every relationship challenge when you truly love each other.

If you follow the below Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship goals then perhaps you too, can have your happily ever after.

Embrace Your Differences

There are several, if not significant, differences between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He’s royalty, she’s one of us. He’s British, she’s an American with biracial family background.

They also have a different upbringing.

While it seems like the differences can easily tear them apart, they embrace it instead. Those diversities bring a fresh outlook both of their families and their lives as well.

Don’t be too doubtful when you find someone that is your total opposite.

Instead of having your cultural and background differences become a setback to your relationship, honour and celebrate them. Like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the two of you will have to be willing to learn about new customs, family traditions, religion, languages and so on.

Multicultural couples are typically subject to more scrutiny than their monocultural counterparts. And while this is an unfortunate matter that continues to persist in our society, as a couple, it is important to be open and honest about how each party deals with things individually and collectively.

Talk everything over and share your deepest fears and frustrations.

From there, the two of you can sort things out.

Align your goals and principles.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are bonded by their passion for humanitarian works. Those are the things that they share and identify with as a couple.

When it comes to having a long-term relationship with someone, it is really important to find a common ground, morality, and life principle that will motivate and direct your path towards a collective goal.

Even if it’s not exactly the same interest, finding a mutual objective in life can help a couple to continuously work together to achieve it.

Prioritize your relationship.

When they began dating, Harry and Meghan lived in two different countries. Meghan said that she and Harry made sure to see each other in person every two weeks to keep the relationship tight and let their feelings deepen. Conventional wisdom has it that love can’t blossom when a couple is long-distance.

What nonsense!

For Meghan and Harry’s marriage, leaving the UK was not about retaliation, it was more about preserving the couple’s future together than simply modernizing their roles in the British Royal Family.

They have put their marriage before anything else, which will set them up for long term success in all other areas of their relationship.

Their decision to step back from the Royal Family in pursuit of matters important to them showed their ability to understand and react to each other’s emotional needs and wishes.

In keeping their son’s and now their daughters best interest in mind, the couple prioritized each other and their sense of ‘we’ above anything else. They rely on each other to meet their needs, instead of looking to external influences or individuals, like the royal family, to meet these needs.

They uphold each other’s autonomy and distinct sense of self, while emotionally relying on each other.

Set firm boundaries!

During the interview with Oprah, Harry said marrying Meghan woke him up to the fact he was “trapped” in his family. He also told her that he wouldn’t have stepped down from his royal duties if he never met his now-wife.

Meghan is very much unlike Harry, she went to college away from her family and has already established family boundaries. Meghan could have served as an inspiration for him to be a better version of himself and to be “free” to live his life on his own terms.

Sometimes you can try setting boundaries in a gentle way, but if they’re not well-received you may have to up your boundaries by doing the thing you’ve been talking about doing, in their case swapping the Buckingham palace for a Canadian estate.

It’s important to be direct and unapologetic about what you want and need, and what you know is best for your family. Many may not understand, may even resent you for that, but then, you should not have these people surrounding you in the first place.

Meghan endured. She left the spotlight, the haters behind and the UK. She did what was best for “them”. Now they can focus on their philanthropy, live somewhere where it doesn’t rain all the time and focus on their children and themselves.

Support each other (No Matter What)!

When Meghan was harassed and criticized by the media and Harry was always by her side ready to stand up for her.

Breaking with royal tradition to ignore the bad press, he issued a statement in support of Meghan and asking the media to back off.

Meghan was very unhappy in her new role with increasingly negative media attention always on her. They both gained a lot of freedom by leaving, and they may not have independently been able to make such a big move.

They needed each other’s support since the world was almost certain to have a negative reaction.

Despite all of the drama, Harry has been Meghan’s main source of support. In solidarity with Meghan, while she was pregnant, Harry reportedly gave up drinking. That’s just how supportive these two are of each other. He also reportedly quit hunting, because his wife is not a fan of the hobby.

The relationship is about sacrifices, and both were happy to make some, to gain more together in the long term.

One of the most important things about being in a relationship is that that person is your partner, and Harry and Meghan have certainly shown that they’re partners throughout.

A strong relationship can’t really work without support — and that support needs to come from within. Prince Harry and Meghan support each other all the time in all ways.

They have an “it’s us against the world” attitude. They have had each other’s backs to the point where they could walk away from the monarchy and know that they would be GREAT as long as they had each other.

Now, do you have that?

I do.