Prince Harry Says Wife Meghan Markle 'Saved Me': 'I Was Stuck in This World'

Prince Harry is opening up about how his wife Meghan Markle changed his life.

On Saturday, the Duke of Sussex, 38, appeared in a virtual book event with Dr. Gabor Maté, an expert specializing in trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development, to discuss the prince's groundbreaking memoir, Spare.

During the intimate conversation, Harry shared how Meghan "saved" him from himself.

"My wife saved me. I was stuck in this world, and she was from a different world and helped draw me out of that," the Duke of Sussex said. "But none of the elements of my life now would have been possible without me seeing it for myself."

"My partner is an exceptional human being and I'm eternally grateful for the wisdom and the space that she has been able to give me," he continued.

Harry, who lives in California with Meghan and their children Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 21 months, previously shared how his wife was the one who inspired him to pursue therapy more seriously.

"It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn't do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with," he said in 2021.

During Saturday's livestream event, Harry also said that he had a "crash course" in racism since meeting Meghan.

"I think what people perhaps don't understand is the pain that it causes to an individual is huge, but then the pain that it causes to society is immense," he said.

Seated across from each other before a crackling fireplace, the Duke of Sussex and Maté, author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, also discussed living with loss and the importance of personal healing. Harry brought up how he related to his mother Princess Diana over feelings of not fitting in with the rest of the royal family.

"Certainly throughout my life, throughout my younger years, I always felt slightly different to the rest of my family," he said. "I felt strange being in this container, and I know that my mum felt the same. It makes sense to me — it didn't make sense at the time — I felt as though my body was in there, but my head was out, but sometimes it was vice-versa.

"The times that I ventured towards being myself, being my authentic true self, whether it was through media or family or whatever it was, it was almost like, 'Don't be yourself, come back to what you're expected to be,' if that makes sense."