10 things that Prince Harry and Meghan have in common (and why it matters for a relationship)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal love affair is a love for the ages.

Since their relationship went public, the world has been holding its breath for the next big news—and they took the world by storm when they left the royal family.

But what makes their relationship work, and why does it seem so strong and indestructible despite everything the world has hurled at them since they went public?

Read on to learn the 10 things that Prince Harry and Meghan have in common—and why it matters for a relationship.

1) They both fight for the same cause

Both Harry and Meghan have been involved with charity work throughout the past years.

Before Meghan was Duchess of Sussex, she was already a renowned activist for women’s rights.

At 11 years old, after having seen a Proctor & Gamble commercial implying that only women are expected to do housework, she has already recognized its sexism. This made her write a letter expressing her disappointment about the commercial not just to the president of the company but also to other influential women, such as Hilary Clinton and Gloria Allred.

The young feminist’s efforts soon paid off, and the commercial ended up being edited to have a more inclusive message. Her efforts landed her an interview in Nickelodeon, where she encouraged other children to speak up whenever they witness something that isn’t right.

This goes to show that, even at a young age, Meghan has already exhibited so-called “woke” values. Her progressiveness is way ahead of its time.

At a young age, she was encouraged to speak up on causes she’s passionate about. Now, she is a world-renowned career woman, known for uplifting the rights of women all over the world.

“I’m proud to be a woman and a feminist,” she said at a speech at the UN during International Women’s Day in 2015.

Harry himself has been busy with his own advocacies before he met Meghan.

He is the founder of the Invictus games, which helps wounded, injured, and sick service men and women. This was inspired by the Warrior Games in the US, which awed the Prince by how sports can help the injured both physically and psychologically.

As Duke of Sussex, Harry was also assigned President of African Parks, where he was tasked with the duty of protecting African national parks and wildlife.

On our favorite woke couple’s wedding, they chose seven charities to donate to. These are the Children’s HIV Association (CHIVA), Crisis, Myna Mahila Foundation, Scotty’s Little Soldiers, StreetGames, Surfers Against Sewage and The Wilderness Foundation UK. This act shows that the couple, truly, is dedicated to their advocacies.

Of course, having progressive values means the two naturally have a heart for helping others.

2) They both have a heart for helping others

Losing his mother at a very young age caused the Prince insurmountable grief and trauma. In the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, he revealed that he used to try to repress these feelings of grief.

“Losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” he said.

But after admitting to being “very close to a breakdown”, he revealed that he then sought help for his mental health. To attempt to lessen the stigma on mental health issues, the former Duke of Sussex started opening up publicly about his own struggles.

As our generation’s woke prince, this, of course, led him to use his clout to start an advocacy on mental health. In a 2021 project called The Me You Can’t See, Harry encouraged the people to seek help for their mental health issues by sharing useful resources.

Meghan, as previously discussed, is a well-known feminist, also known to campaign for progressive causes such as supporting Hilary Clinton in the 2016 elections, campaigning against the Gulf War at the early age of 9, and expressing her approval of the Irish referendum on legalizing abortion.

In 2022, the woke couple won the Ripple of Hope award for their charity work and activism. In their acceptance speech, the progressive duo noted that “a ripple of hope can turn into a tidal wave of change.” Couple goals!

3) They both desire to stay out of the public eye

Even before they left the royal family, Harry and Meghan already expressed desires of staying out of the public eye.

“When I got to meet M, I was terrified of her being driven away by the media—the same media that had driven so many other people away from me,” Harry admits in their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. “I knew that the only way that this could possibly work is by keeping it quiet for as long as possible.”

Meghan, too, has not been spared from the media’s abuse even before she met Harry. Her own father accepted payouts to publicly humiliate her.

After their relationship went public, Meghan soon became a target of British tabloids. Public criticism of the former Duchess became even worse after the news got out that she’s dating Prince Harry.

This goes to show that the two were not wrong to try to stray away from the public eye for as long as they could.

Having seen the media at its worst from how his family was treated by it, this causes Harry to fiercely protect Meghan from the public eye.

Of course, this might also come from the Prince’s trauma from the paparazzi’s involvement in his mother, the late Princess Diana’s death.

The refusal to give into the societal pressure to make their relationship public shows just how much they value their relationship over fame and attention—a very woke mindset, indeed!

4) They bonded over having divorced parents

In Harry & Meghan, it was revealed that the couple bonded over having divorced parents.

“I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is,” Harry says.

“Being pulled from one place to another, or maybe your parents are competitive, or you’re in one place longer than you want to be or another place less than you want to be… There are all sorts of pieces to that.”

Relating to Harry’s remarks, Meghan recites a line from a poem she wrote when she was 12: “Life would be easier if there were two of me.”

In the older times, it would’ve been taboo to talk publicly about your parents’ divorce—much more to bond with other people from it.

But Harry and Meghan’s woke mindset enables the two of them to do just this—to bond over having similar childhood trauma from their families, and share it with the world to reclaim their traumatic experiences.

These experiences of family trauma is also probably why the two understand each other so well.

5) They’re both vocal about their issues with their own families

In their interview with Oprah, Harry and Meghan detailed the reasons why they left their senior positions at the palace.

In Harry’s recently released book, Spare, the prince hurled even more accusations against the royal family, which include the following:

That his brother, William, had tried to attack him
That he and William asked Charles not to marry Camila
That the family was “getting in bed with the devil” due to their links with the tabloid press

But one of the most pressing accusations in the book is that he and his brother, William, were prohibited from talking about any investigation surrounding their late mother, Princess Diana’s death.

Harry suspected that the paparazzi might have been involved in his mother’s death, saying, “Why had those paparazzi got off lightly? Why weren’t they in prison? Who had sent them? And why weren’t those people in jail either? What other reason could there be apart from corruption and cover-ups being the order of the day?”

Meghan, herself, has not been spared from having issues with her own family.

In 2019, after the news broke out that her father would not be attending her wedding, Meghan posted an emotional letter to her father, Thomas Markle. In the letter, she wrote:

“Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces … if you love me, as you tell the press you do, please stop. Please allow us to live our lives in peace.”

Samantha Grant Markle, Meghan’s half-sister, seems to have also been profiting off of talking bad about her Meghan. In her 2021 book The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, she accuses Meghan of “ripping off the royals” and apparently “using” them for her own benefit.

Meghan has been estranged with her father and sister for many years. The only person in the family whom she seems to have kept in touch with is her Mother, Dora Ragland.

6) They’re both adamantly against the royal family’s racism

In their interview with Oprah, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed that a member of the royal family expressed concerns about how dark the color of their son, Archwell’s, skin might be when he is born.

It was also revealed that he would be denied the title of Prince and, consequently, would also be denied protection.

Meghan says that whether or not he would be named Prince is unimportant to her, but she couldn’t take that her son, a member of the royal family and, therefore, a public figure, would not be afforded the security of protection.

Even before Meghan and Harry were married, Meghan’s already been vehemently attacked with racism from the media and the press, which Harry called out.

As a woke couple, the two tried to get support from the royal family against the racism Meghan was getting, but received nothing.

This caused Meghan to be plagued with suicidal thoughts. She says she had also tried to get help from the royal staff for her mental health, but was ignored.

“And I guess one of the most telling parts and the saddest parts, I guess, was [that] over 70 female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan. Yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts.” Meghan admits.

“For the family, they very much have this mentality of, ‘This is just how it is, you can’t change it, we’ve all been through it,’” Harry says. “But what was different for me was the race element—it wasn’t just about her, it was about what she represents.

7) They both reject harmful traditions

Since Harry and Meghan’s relationship had gone public, several accusations have been hurled against Meghan for allegedly converting Harry into believing in the “woke” agenda, and that the two apparently weaponized “Anti-british woke ideology”.

Harry, ever since, has been called names, including being the “woke and dumb” prince of our generation.

But this is simply not true. Harry has already had progressive values even before he met Meghan, including his advocacy to de-stigmatize mental health.

His wokeness only became more apparent after the two left the royal family and revealed the racism of the monarchy against Meghan and their son, Archewell.

As a leftist and a feminist, Meghan herself, naturally, rejects these harmful traditions. In her podcast, Archetypes, she defends the word woke:

“I thought a lot about words that become unnecessarily charged as it pertains to women, like ‘feminism’, for example, [is] often treated as a taboo, as the F-word or the word ‘woke’.”

Meghan continued, “What’s loaded or wrong with that? When you layer a woman into that seemingly anodyne definition, it becomes for many almost disgusting. ‘Outrageous,’ they would say. But why? What is so scary about a woman having an opinion as strongly as a man does? And why do we sometimes cower to that?”

These shared values are so important, because it keeps the couple’s relationship strong despite the backlash that they constantly keep receiving.

8) They’re both powerful and influential

After the interview with Oprah, the two sparked an online conversation to #AbolishTheMonarchy.

While the two are yet to make any public statement about abolishing a centuries-old institution, it is obvious that they are a very powerful couple that could cause huge conversations about their woke advocacies.

Harry’s recently released memoir, Spare, is already breaking records weeks after its release. According to the Guinness Book of World records, it is now the fastest selling nonfiction book of all time, selling a total of 1.4 million copies since its release. Wow!

9) They both wanted out of the royal lifestyle

It is everyone’s dream to marry a prince and live the Disney princess life.

But Harry and Meghan’s revelations about why they left the royal family were far from fantasy. This is why they both wanted out of the royal lifestyle.

While many would prefer to enjoy the life, the influence, and the luxury of being a royal, the two, staying true to their woke values, opted to leave because of the royal family’s racism against Meghan and their son, Archewell.

The way the press invades their privacy is also something they took issue with.

When he talked about his frustrations with the British press, Harry says that “UK is [his] home,” but he had to leave and remove his family from the palace because he “could see where this was headed,” which may be a reflection of his trauma about the manner in which he lost his mother.

In their interview with Oprah, he was asked, “Was the move about getting away from the UK press, because the press is everywhere, or was the move because you weren’t getting enough support from the firm?” to which he answered, “both.”