Meghan Markle Reveals Her Nickname for Prince Harry

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s recent ITV documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, followed the royal couple’s tour of South Africa, but it also shed some light on the behind the scenes of the pair’s lives, including a few sweet personal details. Markle revealed her nickname for her husband as she was speaking about the intense media scrutiny the pair have faced,

“I’ve said for a long time to H — that’s what I call him — It’s not enough to just survive something, right? ” she told Tom Bradby. “That’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive, you’ve got to feel happy. I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a ‘stiff upper lip.’ I really tried, but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging.”

During their South Africa trip, the Duchess of Sussex shared her nickname for her 5-month-old son Archie during a visit with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe.

In a video from the visit, Markle can be heard telling her son, “Say hello! Hello, hi,” before realizing he’s drooling and exclaiming, “Oh, Bubba!”

The documentary also saw Markle open up about life as a new mom and the continued negative attention she has received from the British press since marrying Harry.

“Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn, you know. And especially as a woman, it’s a lot,” she said. “So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed. It’s um…yeah. I guess, also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m okay, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”

Bradby asked the Duchess if it “would be fair” to say that she’s “not really okay, as in it’s really been a struggle?,” to which Markle responded, “Yes.”

She added that she had not been aware of the true nature of the British tabloids before she married Harry, explaining why she doesn’t feel their treatment of her is fair.

“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,” she said. “If things were fair … If I’d done something wrong, I’d be the first one to go ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I would never do that.’ But when people are saying things that are just untrue, and they are being told they’re untrue, but they’re allowed to still say them — I don’t know anybody in the world who would feel like that’s OK.”

“That’s different from just scrutiny,” she continued. “That’s…. what would you call that? It’s a really different beast, you know.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Mark Cuthbert