Society Cupid set up Harry and Meghan

DI S C R E E T L Y but impeccably well-connected, with a fondness for larky dinner parties that end at dawn, stunning little black jumpsuits and trendy Aperol cocktails, glamorous fashion designer Misha Nonoo is being billed as the woman who played Cupid to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

In fact, the 31-year-old – who rather resembles the actress Gwyneth Paltrow – is probably Meghan’s closest female friend. The two met some years ago after being seated next to one another at a lunch in Miami, and became firm friends.

In the summer of 2016, they took a three-week holiday in Europe, visiting London, Madrid, Mallorca and Formentera with a dishy executive from the Soho House group of private members’ clubs, Markus Anderson.

It is widely believed that Misha took the opportunity to connect Meghan and Prince Harry during that holiday, because she had long been friends with Harry and Prince William via her then-husband, who was at Eton with them.

The newly engaged couple’s first date is thought to have been in late July, at a private members’ club in central London – Soho House in Dean Street, or 5 Hertford Street, Mayfair – shortly after Meghan watched her friend Serena Williams play Wimbledon.

This matchmaking role was apparently confirmed by Prince Harry in his televised interview on Monday, when he admitted it was a woman who suggested they meet: “We were introduced by a mutual friend… it was through her and then we met once and then twice back-to-back, two dates in London last July”.

Meghan said she had only one question for her friend when she suggested the date: “Well, is he nice?”

That says something about the trust she held in the matchmaker and indeed, they have come to regard themselves virtually as sisters, hence Misha’s comment about Meghan: “I love her to death. She is the coolest girl in the world. She has the most remarkable and generous spirit.”

Both women are only children who have lived far from home for much of their adult lives. Meghan relocated from California to Toronto to film the TV series Misha from London to New York to found her fashion business.

Both are divorcees who are crazy about their dogs – Meghan has Bogart and Guy, a beagle and a labrador-cross, Misha has a “cavapoo” (a cross between a poodle and a Cavalier King Charles spaniel) called Margaret Thatcher.

Meghan, meanwhile, is a fan of Pilates and calls running her “moving meditation”.

Talking about that holiday to Europe during which she met Harry, she said on her now-closed internet site that she tried to “eat everything, pray (and meditate) often, and simply love my life, every ounce of it”.

For now, it has to be said that Misha Nonoo probably has the edge in social connections since she is pals with celebrities including Madonna, the rapper Jay-Z and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. But that is presumably about to change.

However, she and Meghan are as close as siblings. When Misha posted a picture of the pair giggling over drinks in Madrid last summer, she captioned it: “When only children find sisters”. – Daily Mail