Prince Harry referred to Meghan Markle as his “soulmate” on the international stage Monday. The Duke of Sussex was in New York City on Monday to deliver a speech at the United Nations as part of Nelson Mandela Day. He spoke about how his passion for Africa began after visiting the continent at 13 and how it connected his late mother Princess Diana to Markle.
“For most of my life, it has been my lifeline, a place where I found peace and healing time and time again,” Harry, 37, said Monday. “It’s where I felt closest to my mother and sought solace after she died, and where I knew I had found a soulmate in my wife.” Harry and Markle, 40, have already been to Africa together several times, even visiting Botswana early in their relationship in 2016.
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Harry also spoke about the photo of Diana and Mandela taken in 1997, which he has on his wall at home. The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave the photo to Harry. “When I first looked at the photo, straight away what jumped out is the joy on my mother’s face. The playfulness – cheekiness, even,” Harry said. “The pure delight to be in communion with another soul so committed to serving humanity.”
The photo shows Diana and Mandela shaking hands, with both wearing a smile on their faces. Harry found Mandela’s smile because Mandela could still smile, despite all he had been through in his fight against apartheid in South Africa. Mandela was “still able to see the goodness in humanity, still buoyant with a beautiful spirit that lifted everyone around him,” Harry said. “Not because he was blind to the ugliness, the injustices of the world – no. He saw them clearly. He had lived them. But because he knew we could overcome them.”
Harry urged change and hoped that many could find inspiration in Mandela’s work. He noted it has been a “painful year in a painful decade,” referring to the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine, the spread of misinformation, and the “rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States.” This last comment was a reference to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“This is a pivotal moment- a moment where multiple converging crises have given way to an endless string of injustices-a moment where ordinary people around the world are experiencing extraordinary pain,” the prince continued. “And at this moment, we have a choice to make. We can grow apathetic, succumb to anger, or yield to despair, surrendering to the gravity of what we’re up against. Or we can do what Mandela did, every single day inside that 7-by-9-foot prison cell on Robben Island-and every day outside of it, too. We can find meaning and purpose in the struggle. We can wear our principles as armor. Heed the advice Mandela once gave his son, to ‘never give up the battle even in the darkest hour.’ And find hope where we have the courage to seek it.”
