Meghan Revealed Her Short, Sweet, Very Chill Nickname For Harry
I've never had a prince for a partner, so I can only imagine what I would call my royal boo. But I'd probably take a cue from Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and keep the nickname short and sweet — British royals already have enough titles to deal with, after all. Meghan Markle's new nickname for Prince Harry was revealed in an interview for ITV's upcoming documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, and though she previously revealed she liked to call him "my love," she now has an even simpler pet name for Harry: "H."
The documentary revolves around the couple's recent 10-day tour in Africa, where Harry retraced his mother Diana's footsteps from her own trip in January 1997. It was an emotional journey for several reasons, but reflecting on his mother was particularly painful for Harry, who believes his wife to be unfairly targeted by the tabloids the same way his mother was. When asked by ITV's Tom Bradby about facing the challenges of marriage and motherhood under the scrutiny of the press, Meghan reflected on her experience — and made her sweet nickname for Harry public. "I've said for a long time to H—," she said, and then added as an aside, "That's what I call him." My heart!
Meghan went on to explain how the pressure of the paparazzi has taken a toll on her mental health and happiness. "It’s not enough just to survive something, right? That’s not the point of life," she said. "You've got to thrive, you've got to feel happy, and I really think I tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip. I tried, I really tried, but I think that what that does is internally is probably really damaging, and the biggest thing that I know is that I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile."
Even though Meghan and Harry — who took legal action against the UK tabloid newspaper The Mail on Sunday in early October — have a strained relationship with the press, it seems as though they have never stopped trusting each other. Harry has consistently supported Meghan throughout the painful ordeal, which he has referred to as a "ruthless campaign" to smear Meghan. In another clip from the interview, Bradby mentions the prince by saying, "He's obviously very concerned about protecting you, and protecting you from what he felt his mother went through." And anyone who sees the Duke and Duchess of Sussex together would agree: These two appear as if they would do anything for each other.
The new parents intend to take some time away from the spotlight for the holidays with baby Archie, and I can only hope the tabloids will give them some much-needed privacy. It couldn't have been easy for Meghan to go public with her struggle, but I'm sure glad she did (and that she also gifted us with Harry's super-sweet new nickname). I'm proud of you, M. (Are you cool with me calling you "M" now, Meghan? OK, cool.)
