Prince Harry Kept a Strange Item of Diana — Claimed It Helped Wife Meghan Markle Get Pregnant

Prince Harry once revealed an unusual yet deeply personal belief—that his late mother Princess Diana, helped conceive his first child, Archie. In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex shared that he kept a blue box containing Diana’s hair by his bedside, and he believes it acted as a good luck charm when he and Meghan Markle were trying to get pregnant. As per Cheatsheet, he shared that his aunt, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, gave him the lock of hair when she, her sisters, along with King Charles III had gone to France to identify Diana’s body.

Harry described how, one night, Markle placed two pregnancy tests on his nightstand while he was asleep. When he woke to see them next to the blue box holding his mother’s hair, he immediately made the connection. “Right, good. Let’s see what Mummy can do with this situation,” he wrote, as reported by the Daily Mail. The tests turned out to be positive. Overwhelmed with happiness, he recalled feeling his mother’s presence. “Thank you, Mummy,” he allegedly thought to himself.

This wasn't the only sign Harry believed indicated they were meant to be parents. The Duke recalled another 'good omen' that occurred while he and Markle were visiting the Castle of Mey, the former home of the Queen Mother in Scotland. During a walk along the beach, they came across a group of seals. Harry jokingly attempted to serenade them but received no response. However, when Markle joined in, the seals reacted to her singing; something Harry interpreted as another sign. “She really is magic, I thought. Even the seals know it.” In his excitement, he impulsively stripped down and dove into the frigid Scottish waters. The magical moment was later undercut when a castle chef warned them that those waters were ‘infested with orcas,’ and their singing had likely been luring the seals to potential danger.

Despite the ominous warning, Harry remained committed to his belief that it was a good omen. He even paid tribute to the seals, or ‘selkies,’ mythological creatures said to transform from seals to humans, when he learned Markle was pregnant. Their visit to Scotland reportedly took place in the summer of 2018 while they were staying with then-Prince Charles, and also visiting Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral. Just weeks later, they shared their happy news with the royal family.

The first person they told was Charles. Harry recalled how his father smiled widely upon hearing he would become a grandfather again. The couple revealed their pregnancy during Princess Eugenie’s wedding celebrations on October 12, 2018. At a cocktail party following the wedding reception, they shared the news with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

They welcomed their first child, Archie, in May 2019. Their path to parenthood was however not without challenges. Markle suffered a miscarriage in July 2020. The couple later welcomed their second child, Lilibet, in June 2021.