Lessons From A Royal Romance

It was Tolstoy who famously said that there are many ways to find unhappiness in this world but the path to happiness is common. For most people this involves finding comfort, strength and security through family and relationships. All relationships push us out of our comfort zones. To adapt enough to accommodate another person into our lives requires real commitment because it will invariably involve moments of doubt, conflict, discomfort and uncertainty. But this very process can be the ultimate vehicle for our own self growth.

This is something that clearly comes across in the recent interviews between Prince William and his fiancé Kate Middleton. Prince William is one of the closest things the world has to a real live Truman Show. He has been raised his entire life before the glare of a 24-hour media. As they announced their engagement, the sheer ferocity of the flashing cameras looked enough to make anyone epileptic! As a consequence of this degree of attention, every twist and turn of their relationship has been scrutinized under the microscope of the ever restless media circus.

We know, therefore, that on at least one occasion – and probably more – William broke off the relationship with Kate. This they have in common with most other long-term relationships in the modern world. Unlike almost any other modern relationship, however, they were required to answer questions about this to the world’s press within 24 hours of their engagement. The answers they provided were very interesting. Though they both acknowledged that the breakups were a difficult time for them, they nevertheless expressed that they both feel they have grown as people as a result. In fact, the overriding theme of their decade-long relationship to date is that they have used the good times and bad to work on themselves and each grow as individuals. As a result, they now have a solid enough bedrock, they believe, upon which to build a lifelong partnership.

In many respects their own pressures have been entirely unique; dealing with life under such an intense limelight is a pressure unknown to most of us. Add to that, William’s own childhood trauma and consequent lifelong adjustment after the loss of his mother at an early age. However, in terms of the general forging of a dynamic between two individuals, with their own differing backgrounds, upbringings, feelings, priorities, issues and characters, their journey has not been dissimilar to that made by millions of couples around the world who, by working on their relationship, have worked on themselves and thus become stronger and happier people as a result. That is the ultimate aim and benefit of any relationship; emotional development.

The value of such growth, and the ability to achieve it through relationship, is inspiring where ever it is seen and, hopefully, the forthcoming Royal wedding will be a celebration of this, at least as much as it is of country, Royalty or celebrity.


Article first published as Lessons From A Royal Romance on Technorati.