Prince Harry realized Meghan Markle was his “soulmate” during one of their trips to Africa.
The Duke of Sussex, 37, recalled the sweet memory Monday during a keynote address honoring Nelson Mandela International Day at United Nations headquarters in New York.
“Since I first visited Africa at the age of 13, I have always found hope in the continent,” he said, calling it his “lifeline” where he “found peace and healing time and again.”
“This is where I felt closest to my mother and sought comfort after she died,” he continued, “and where I knew I had found a soul mate in my wife.”
Harry and Meghan, 40, visited the continent twice during their courtship and once after they got married.
The couple first traveled to Botswana shortly after they started dating in July 2016 and returned in August to celebrate the Duchess of Sussex’s 36th birthday.
Days after unveiling their joint Instagram account in April 2019, Harry and Meghan shared a photo from their second trip to Botswana showing a satellite collar on a bull elephant to help conservationists monitor the animal’s critical migration patterns to protect it from poachers.
The two tied the knot at London’s St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May 2018 at a high-profile wedding attended by royals and celebrities alike.
The following September — less than five months after Meghan gave birth to the couple’s first child, son Archie — the family of three embarked on a 10-day tour of Africa.
Harry told a British broadcaster at the time that he felt “more like myself” in Africa than anywhere else, adding that Cape Town would be a “great place for us to settle in,” according to London’s Sunday Times.
However, in early 2020, Harry, Meghan and Archie, now 3, briefly moved from the UK to Vancouver Island in Canada after stepping back as senior members of the royal family.
The Sussexes, who are also parents to 1-year-old daughter Lilibet, soon settled in Santa Barbara, California, where they currently live in a $14.7 million Montecito mansion.