Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are detailing their love story like never before!
If you’ve ever wondered how an American actress wound up meeting, dating, and falling in love with an IRL British prince, look no further because they are spilling the tea! In the first three episodes of the couple’s new docuseries Harry & Meghan, the pair broke down their romance with never-before-shared anecdotes and footage from their most important moments!
Related: Charles ‘Concerned’ Docuseries Will Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’ To Monarchy
How They Met
First of all, how’d they meet? Turns out it was nothing like the fairy tales. Forget fancy gowns and palaces, when Harry first caught a glimpse of Meghan, she was rocking the classic doggy ears Snapchat filter in a video on their mutual friend’s Instagram account!
This was back in 2016 when the Suits alum was on a hiatus from the show. Fresh out of a breakup, she was ready to have a “single girl summer” while traveling Europe, as her friend Lucy Fraser put it, but that all changed in the blink of an eye. Meghan explained:
“I had a career, I had my life, I had my path and then came H. I mean, talk about a plot twist.”
After seeing the video of the actress, Harry recalled thinking:
“I was like ‘who is THAT?!”
Via a private email from her unnamed friend, the Deal or No Deal alum then learned that “Prince Haz” had asked about her and was “dying to” meet. Meghan replied:
“Who is Prince Haz????”
LOLz!
And get this: the first thing the performer asked to see was the 38-year-old’s Instagram feed! She literally had a date with one of the most famous princes in the world and she wanted to vet his feed first. Seriously?! She dished:
“So that’s the thing. When people say, ‘Did you Google him?’ No, but that’s your homework. You’re, like, let me see what they’re about in their feed, not what someone else says about them, but what they are putting out about themselves. So I went through and it was just like beautiful photography and all these environmental shots and this time he was spending in Africa.”
The next day, they swapped numbers and “were constantly in touch.” For their first date, they met for drinks at Soho Home on 76 Dean Street in London while she was in the area for Wimbledon. And from there, things took off…
First Trip
Their initial first date was followed by two back-to-back dates in London and then Harry invited Meghan to join him for a trip to Botswana in 2016, Prince William’s younger brother teased:
“I was astonished that she said ‘yes.’ This woman, that I’ve really met twice, she’s coming to Botswana and we’re gonna be living in a tent for five days!”
And it began as awkwardly as you might expect, the mother of two added:
“So I get there, this is the first time I’ve seen him in a month. Very awkward at first like, oh God, do we, do we kiss? Do we? And I just remember he handed me a chicken sandwich!”
Thankfully, they hopped into a land cruiser to tour the area and quickly started to warm up to each other again, Harry continued:
“For me, it was critical to share it with Meg. To start with we’re sitting next to each other and then we progressed to holding hands and then we squeezed in a kiss and amid the bumps and then everything felt totally normal and natural.”
He added:
“We had to get to know each other before the rest of the world, before the media sort of, you know, joined it.”
On life in “the bush,” his wife chimed in:
“We could both just be completely ourselves.”
She continued:
“There’s no distraction. There was no cell phone reception. There’s no mirror, there’s no bathroom. And there was no, how do I look? Thankfully, we really liked each other.”
A super helpful way to start their relationship considering it would soon become the talk of the town!! After the trip, the lovebirds made a pact to visit each other in person every two weeks, trading time between London and Toronto (though, before the romance was public, they often met up in the UK since it was easier to maintain some sense of privacy). Harry explained:
“Those first few months when no one knew, it made much more sense for her to come to me so that then she can come and stay with me on Kensington Palace grounds.”
He said:
“We can then jump in the car and head up to Windsor and go for walks around Frogmore, and do all these things together so that we can get to know each other without someone taking a photograph and then it becoming news.”
Related: Harry & Meghan BLASTED For Faking Invasive Media Mayhem In Trailer!
Meghan’s friend Abigail Spencer was the first to hear about the relationship in September 2016, and she knew from then on that this was something serious. She told the cameras:
“She was like I think I met someone and I’m in love. It’s Prince Harry. I could feel everything vibrating. I was screaming because I could feel it was different.”
Soon after, the rest of the world was clued into the romance, too. Harry recalled getting a phone call from a trusted staffer, Jason Knauf, who revealed a UK newspaper was going to break their story. To enjoy one last night of fun before getting thrust under the spotlight, the couple hit the town with Princess Eugenie and her then-boyfriend Jack Brooksbank for Halloween.
Engagement
Obviously, things only grew more serious for the pair — and then it was time for Prince Haz to get down on one knee! Elsewhere in the first chunk of the episodes, Harry revealed:
“I wanted to do it earlier. I had to ask permission from my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II], I couldn’t do it outside the UK.”
During a night in at their cottage, Harry recalled opening “a bottle of Champagne while she [Markle] was roasting a chicken — and that kind of slightly gave the game away.” He quipped:
“She was like, ‘You never drink Champagne, what’s the occasion?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, I just had it like, lying around.’”
Outside, Harry had set up “15 of those electric candles” around their property while he told Meghan “not to peek.” Inside, she called her friend and whispered, “It’s actually happening!” Aw!!
In never-before-seen snaps of the romantic moment (above), Harry could be seen down on one knee while holding a ring box in one hand and patting Meghan’s beagle, Guy, who had been flown in from the US. Meghan reflected:
“He was down on one knee, and I was like ‘yes’ we were so joyful and excited. We thought, ‘We’re doing this!’”
An engagement meant more royal fanfare, too. Discussing their famous sit-down engagement interview and photocall in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace that followed on November 27, 2017, Meghan said it was an “orchestrated reality show,” adding:
“It was rehearsed. We did the thing out with the press, then we went right inside, took the coat off, and did the interview. So it’s all in that same moment.”
The rest, as they say, is history. After marrying in May 2018 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, they welcomed their son Archie, 3, in May 2019 and daughter Lilibet, 1, in June 2021. Of course, in 2020, they departed the royal family and eventually settled in Montecito, California, striking up a never-ending feud with the other royals in the process. Reactions, Perezcious readers?! Let us know (below)!
[Image via Netflix]
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