Meghan Markle never got to meet Princess Diana, but Prince Harry has shared how his wife shares similarities with his late mother.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, appeared as a guest on the April 28 episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show, marking her first-ever podcast interview, where the host recalled something the Duke of Sussex, 40, said about his wife.
Kern Lima said, “So Harry said publicly, ‘So much of what Megan is and how she is so similar to my mum. She has the same compassion. She has the same empathy. She has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.’ How do you feel about him sharing that?”
“It’s beautiful,” Meghan replied. “I wish I could have met her.”
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Prince Harry and Princes Diana in 1986
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Prince Harry was 12 when Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash at age 36. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have kept reminders of Harry’s mother close, from using diamonds that belonged to Diana for Meghan’s engagement ring to hanging a photo of her in their son’s bedroom.
Prince Harry also revealed in his memoir, Spare, that he first connected with his future wife on Princess Diana’s birthday. After seeing Meghan on his Instagram feed via a mutual friend, Harry asked for her contact information on July 1, 2016.
“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.”
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Meghan and Harry visited Diana’s burial site at Althorp, the Spencer family’s ancestral home in Northamptonshire, England, for the first time together in 2022.
“No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one… twenty-fifth anniversary,” Prince Harry wrote in Spare. “And Meg’s first time. At long last, I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.”
“We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity,” he continued. “Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone.”
“I asked, as we walked back to the boat, what she’d prayed for,” Prince Harry added. “Clarity, she said. And guidance.”
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