Prince Harry has revealed that he broke his own strict three-year dating rule when he met Meghan Markle, marrying her just two years after they first got together. In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex admitted he had held "firm rules" about relationships, but said Meghan seemed the exception to all of them.
The couple's romance moved quickly, with Harry whisking Meghan away on holiday on just their third date and becoming engaged just over a year after they met. They wed in 2018, which Harry acknowledged was a direct contradiction of a guideline he had set for himself as a young, eligible bachelor.
A Rule Set for Royal Life
In Spare, published in 2023, Harry wrote about the "firm rules" he always held when it came to relationships, particularly given his royal status. He said: "The main one was that you absolutely must date a woman for three years before taking the plunge."
He added: "But Meg seemed the shining exception to this rule. All rules. I knew her straightaway, and she knew me. The true me. Might seem rash, I thought, might seem illogical, but it's true: For the first time, in fact, I felt myself to be living in truth."
A decade before they met, Harry's life looked vastly different. He was a full-time working royal residing in his Kensington Palace cottage, just a stone's throw from his now estranged brother, Prince William. It was during the summer of 2016, as his romance with Meghan began to flourish, that everything started to shift for the prince.
From Royal Life to California
Just two years after they met, Harry and Meghan tied the knot in a Windsor wedding. Another two years on, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit the Royal Family and now reside in California with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Now, six years on from their relocation to America, the Sussex family are back in the UK after moving to the Cotswolds in August. Harry and Meghan are continuing their philanthropic work, while the children are enrolled in a British school.
Family Relations Remain Strained
Harry's relationship with his family is still strained, although the Duke and Duchess reunited with the King and Queen during a private family meeting at Highgrove in July, which marked the first time Charles had seen his grandchildren in four years.
Despite making moves to reconcile with his father, it is believed that Harry and his brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are still not on speaking terms, with no sign that they will mend their rift any time soon.
