Prince Harry Needed Meghan Markle For This Reason

They’ve had a whirlwind romance that has seen them become engaged, get married and welcome their first child together all within the span of three years, but prior to meeting Meghan Markle, Prince Harry made it clear that he was looking for someone to spend the rest of his life with.

In a resurfaced interview from 2015 (via Express UK), the Prince revealed that he was eager to start a family of his own, just like his older brother, Prince William, but that he needed to find someone who could handle and understand the pressure that came from constantly being in the spotlight as a member of the royal family.

“It would be great to have someone else next to me to share the pressure, but you know, the time will come and whatever happens, happens,” he said at the time. “There come times when you think now is the time to settle down, or now is not, whatever way it is, but I don’t think you can force these things, it will happen when it’s going to happen.”

“Of course I would love to have kids right now, but there’s a process that one has to go through,” he added. “Hopefully I’m doing all right by myself.”

He went on to meet Markle, then an actress, in 2016 after they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. The pair hit it off and went on to become engaged one year later, in November 2017. They were married in May 2018 and welcomed their first son together, Archie Harrison, in May 2019.

However, the pair tried to start off dating quietly, before the relationship was made public by the press, and forced Prince Harry to make a risky move that rebelled against royal protocol in order to protect his girlfriend.

He issued a statement demanding that Markle stop being subjected to a “wave of abuse and harassment,” which went against the usual royal way of dealing with the press.

Of course, while the royal family usually wouldn’t address the press speculation about them, especially when it came to someone who wasn’t actually a member of the family yet, it wasn’t the first time that they had taken action to protect someone’s girlfriend. Similar actions were taken on behalf of Kate Middleton before she was engaged to Prince William.

After private photos were taken of Middleton playing tennis with her family over the Christmas holiday on Prince Charles’ courts at Resormel Manor in Cornwall, the Queen’s lawyers stepped in on the future Duchess’ behalf to keep media organizations in the UK from using the photos. Further actions were taken after Middleton and Prince William were also chased by photographers after leaving a nightclub together in 2007.