Prince Harry has claimed he believed Meghan Markle was “magic” after she sang to a pair of seals during a trip to Scotland and then miraculously fell pregnant at a time when the couple were trying to conceive.
The story sparks from the then Prince Charles previously telling the former Suits actress a tale about mermaids disguising themselves as seals which are referred to in folklore as “selkies”.
Selkies are mythological beings found in numerous Celtic and Norse folktales, capable of changing from seal to human by shedding their skin.
Harry explained that the seals had “responded” to Meghan’s singing which he took as confirmation that she “really was magic”.
Writing in his tell all memoir Spare, the duke revealed that at that time King Charles and Meghan Markle shared a “strong bond” and that the now monarch often enjoyed “peacocking in front of Meg” by telling stories with “much theatre”.
Charles had advised the former royal couple: “So when you see a seal, you never can tell … Sing to it. They often sing back.”
Harry and Meghan had been visiting the Castle of Mey – a royal castle bought by the Queen Mother in the 50s – in Caithness back in 2018 when they spotted the seals swimming.
The duke had ran over to sing to them after his father’s story but failed to get a response. However, when Meghan joined in, the seals all answered her voice.
Recalling the moment in his book, he wrote: “Soon enough, an endless number of heads began to appear in every part of the water, responding to her song.”
Charles had also advised Harry and Meghan that selkies may grant wishes with the duke writing: “It could have been a stupid superstition, but I didn’t care”, as he revealed he then stripped off and swam towards the seals.
Their trip to Mey came at a time when the Sussexes’ were trying for their first child but had been struggling due to Meghan’s weight loss which Harry claims was due to the stresses of royal life.
The couple, who stepped down from the Royal Family in 2020, consulted a Ayuverdic doctor – a traditional Hindu form of medicine – for help, who informed them that if Meghan gained three kilos in weight, she would be able to conceive.
Harry wrote in his memoir that while they awaited the result of the pregnancy tests he had placed them on his nightstand next to a small box in which he kept a lock of his late mother Diana’s hair.
He wrote: “All right, I told myself, good. We’ll see what Mum can do with it.”
After both tests came back positive, Harry credited both his mother and Meghan’s “magic” singing to the selkies.
The couple went on to welcome their first child, Prince Archie in May 2019, just eight months before they announced they were leaving their royal duties behind to start a new life in the US.
They later welcomed their daughter, Princess Lilibet, in June 2021, after their move to the States and the family all reside together in Montecito, California.
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