MEGHAN AND HARRY: WE ARE IN LOVE
Royal engagement on the cards
PRINCE Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle has fuelled royal wedding speculation after revealing the pair are “two people who are really happy and in love”.
The American actress, who celebrated her 36th birthday with Harry on a romantic safari in Botswana last month, has talked about their 13-month relationship in an interview with a US magazine that was
previously used by palace officials to showcase new members of the Royal Family, including the Duchess of Cornwall to an international audience.
Meghan, who stars as paralegal Rachel Zane in the US television drama Suits, appears on the cover of Vanity Fair with her brunette hair tumbling over her shoulders. The headline reads: She’s just wild about Harry!
In the interview, she told how she met Harry, 32, in London in July last year and said they dated for six months before their romance became public.
“We’re a couple, We’re in love,” she said. “I’m sure there will be a time when we will have to come forward and present ourselves and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time.
“This is for us. It’s part of what makes it so special, that it’s just ours. But we’re happy. Personally, I love a great love story.”
Friends said Prince Harry was happy for Meghan to have given the interview in a further indication that the Royal Family is clearing the decks for an engagement announcement.
Meghan – who recently returned from a three-week break to Botswana with Harry – described handling the intense interest in their relationship as difficult but suggested she was coping well. She said: “It has its challenges and it comes in waves – some days it can feel more challenging than others. And right out of the gate it was surprising the way things changed. But I still have this support system all around me, and, of course, my boyfriend’s support.”
The actress, who is proud of her mixed race – her mother is black and her father white – said that in the face of such interest her parents have been incredibly supportive, as have her friends and Harry’s closest confidants.
She said: “I can tell you that at the end of the day I think it’s really simple. We’re two people who are really happy and in love.
“We were very quietly dating for about six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time, and the only thing that changed was people’s perception.
“Nothing about me changed. I’m still the same person that I am, and I’ve never defined myself by my relationship.”
Tennis star Serena Williams is among her friends who gave interviews for the Vanity Fair cover story. Williams, who met her seven years ago at the Super Bowl in the US, said her “personality just shines” and that her advice was to “be who you are, you can’t hide”.
In the interview, Meghan also spoke about growing up in Los Angeles during the Rodney King race riots in 1992 when the city burned. She said: “They had let us go home [from school] during the riots and there was ash everywhere.” Meghan mistook it for snow and her mother Doria replied: “No, Flower, it’s not snow. Get in the house.”
The article is accompanied by a spread of photos by Peter Lindbergh, the renowned German photographer, featuring Meghan in various sultry poses.
She is described as being “lightly freckled” with a “glowing complexion” and in the story Meghan thanked Lindbergh for not photoshopping out her freckles.
Sam Kashner, who interviewed her, said the actress came over as “well brought up” and remarked that her “warmth is genuine”.
One photo is of her in a black jumper resting her head on her arm and staring into the distance.
Another shows her sitting in a chair with a black background wearing a white shirt unbuttoned down to her midriff.
Meghan also discussed her father Thomas working as a lighting technician on the sitcom Married With Children. She added: “What’s so incredible, you know, is that my parents split up when I was two, [but] I never saw them fight. We would still take vacations together.
“My dad would come on Sundays to drop me off, and we’d watch Jeopardy! eating dinner on TV trays, the three of us... we were still so close-knit.”
Vanity Fair noted that if Meghan and Harry do wed she will become the first American to marry into the Royal Family since Wallis Simpson wed King Edward VIII.
Insiders expect an engagement this year and a wedding in 2018.
Ladbrokes suspended betting yesterday on Harry popping the question this year.
FOLLOWING the announcement that the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant, Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle has gushingly declared her love for him sparking further speculation that marriage could be on the cards. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Royal Family were to welcome not one but two new members in the near future?