Harry went down on one knee over a roast chicken dinner ...
IT was one of the most open and extraordinary royal interviews ever.
Minutes after Prince Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle posed at a Kensington Palace photocall, the besotted couple sat down for a 21-minute interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain.
Unsurprisingly for an actress and a prince who has always worn his heart on his sleeve, they talked with refreshing candour about everything from Harry’s proposal over a roast chicken (one of Meghan’s signature dishes), to how they went on holiday to the African bush just weeks after meeting – and that the Queen’s corgis immediately took a liking to her.
Movingly, Harry said he believed that his late mother, Princess Diana, was with them on ‘this crazy journey’.
But Meghan revealed that although he did, according to tradition, ask her father for her hand in marriage, the request came over the phone as her intended hasn’t even had a chance to meet him yet, such is the breathless pace of their whirlwind romance.
Their first, blind date... and a camping trip to Botswana
Harry reveals that the couple met on a ‘blind date’ – ‘a set-up’ – in July last year, arranged by a mutual friend, a woman they declined to name but who is believed to be fashion designer Misha Nonoo, the estranged wife of Harry’s friend Alexander Gilkes, a pal of William and Harry’s from Eton.
Astonishingly, the couple had only two ‘backto-back’ dates in London before flying on holiday to Botswana together, Harry’s favourite place in the world, for five days, where they slept out under the stars.
Harry said: ‘We were introduced by a mutual friend… it was literally…. through her and then we met once and then twice back-to-back two dates in London, last July.
‘And then it was I think about three, maybe four, weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana. And we camped out with each other under the stars. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.’
Meghan said she had only one question for her friend when she suggested the date: ‘Well, is he nice?’ She said: ‘Because I’m from the States you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the Royal Family. And so, while I now understand very clearly there is a global interest there, I didn’t know much about him.
‘And so the only thing that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was, “I have one question” which was, “Well, is he nice?” cos if he wasn’t kind it just didn’t seem like it would make sense. So we met for a drink and I think very quickly into that we said, “What are we doing tomorrow? We should meet again”.’
Harry adds: ‘ “What are we doing tomorrow? Let’s meet again”. And then it was like, right, diaries. “We need to get the diaries out and find out how we’re going to make this work”, because I was off to Africa for a month, she was working. And we just said right where’s the gap? And the gap happened to be in the perfect place [Botswana].’
Harry didn’t know who Meghan was
Contrary to reports claiming Harry had long harboured a crush on the actress, he said he had no idea who she was – but instantly realised he had to raise his game.
Asked whether he had seen her on TV, he said: ‘No. I’d never even heard about her until this friend said Meghan Markle. I was like, “Right, OK, give me a bit of background ... what’s going on here?” So no, I’d never watched Suits, I’d never heard of Meghan before, and I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her.
‘And there she was sitting there... I was like, OK, well I’m going to have to up my game ... sit down
and make sure I’ve got good chat.’ Meghan says it was clear Harry was pleased she didn’t know much about him either, which gave her the chance to learn about him in a ‘ really authentic and organic way’.
Harry added: ‘It was hugely refreshing to be able to get to know someone who isn’t necessarily within your circle, doesn’t know much about me, I don’t know much about her.
‘So to be able to start almost afresh, right from the beginning, getting to know each other step by step and then taking that huge leap of only two dates and then going effectively on holiday together in the middle of nowhere and sharing a tent together and all that kind of stuff. It was ... fantastic. It was absolutely amazing to get to know her as quickly as I did.’
A proposal in the kitchen
As proposals go – and not just royal ones – it was unconventionally low-key. Harry popped the question while the couple were cooking a roast chicken at their cosy home, Nottingham Cottage, at Kensington Palace.
And Meghan was so eager to say yes, she barely let him finish asking her to marry him.
‘ It happened earlier this month, just a standard typical night for us,’ Harry revealed. Meghan said: ‘Just a cosy night, we were just roasting chicken.’
Harry added: ‘Roasting a chicken, trying to roast a chicken.’ Meghan went on: ‘It was just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee.’ Harry quipped: ‘Of course!’
Asked if it was an ‘instant yes’, Meghan laughed and said: ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, “Can I say yes now?” ’
Harry added: ‘She didn’t even let me finish. She said, “Can I say yes, can I say yes” and then there were hugs. I had the ring in my finger and I was like, “Can I give you the ring?” She goes, “Oh yes, the ring”. It was a really nice moment, it was just the two of us and I think I managed to catch her by surprise as well.’
The ring ... a tribute to his mother Diana
Asked to show off her ring, Meghan proudly displayed the glittering sparkler which has a unique link to Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana.
Harry said: ‘The ring is yellow gold because that’s her favourite. The main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds either side are from my mother’s jewellery collection to make sure that she’s with us on this crazy journey together.’
Meghan added: ‘It’s beautiful, and he designed it. It’s incredible.’ Ever the joker, Harry said: ‘Yeah, make sure it stays on that finger’, to which Meghan replied: ‘Of course!’
Asked what it meant to her to have Diana’s gems on her finger, she said: ‘Obviously not being able to meet his mom, it’s so important to me to know that she’s a part of this with us.
‘And I think in being able to meet his aunts and Julia [Samuel, Diana’s best friend and confidante] and different people who were so important to his mom, I’m able to, in some way, know a part of her through them and of course through him. And it’s incredibly special.
‘And to have this [ring] which sort of links where you come from and Botswana which is important to us is perfect.’
Meeting Wills and Kate... the neighbours
Harry said it was ‘ exciting’ introducing Meghan to his brother and sister-in-law.
He revealed: ‘I’d been seeing her for a period of time when I literally didn’t tell anybody at all. And then William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine, so being our neighbours we managed to get that in a couple of, well quite a few, times now. Catherine has been absolutely...’
Meghan interjects: ‘ She’s been wonderful.’
‘...amazing,’ says Harry, ‘as has William as well, fantastic support. And then my father as well, we had a handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings over at his place as well.
‘The family together have been absolutely a solid support. And my grandparents as well have been wonderful throughout this whole process and they’ve known for quite some time. So how they haven’t told anybody is again a miracle in itself. But the whole family have come together and have been a huge amount of support.’
Meghan added: ‘They’ve been amazing.’
Harry hasn’t met her father yet
Meghan said her parents are incredibly happy for her but had, initially, been concerned about the scale of what she was ‘getting into’.
She said: ‘I’m sure at the onset both my parents and my close friends were concerned, because we got very quickly swept up in a media storm that was not part of my life before that, but they also had never seen me so happy.
‘And I think also once my friends were able to really meet Harry, and my mom, who we’ve spent a lot of time with – who is so much fun.’ Harry added: ‘Her
mum’s amazing.’ Meghan continued: ‘It was just obvious that no matter what we were being put through that it was just temporary and that we were going to be able to get through that. So everybody was really happy.
‘And he’s talked to my dad a few times – hasn’t been able to meet him just yet – but it’s all been, it’s all been worth every effort.’ Meghan insisted that, despite being an actress, she had no idea of what dating a prince would involve.
She said: ‘I think I can very safely say, as naive as it sounds now, having gone through this learning curve in the past year and a half, I did not have any understanding of just what it would be like. I don’t think either of us did...’
Harry said he did try to warn his girlfriend, but both were taken aback by the level of interest when news of their relationship leaked out last autumn. ‘I think you can have as many conversations as you want and try to prepare as much as possible but we were totally unprepared for what happened after that,’ he said.
Meghan added: ‘There’s a misconception that because I have worked in the entertainment industry, this would be something I would be familiar with.
‘But even though I’d been on my show for six years at that point, and working before that, I have never been part of tabloid culture. I’ve never been in pop culture to that degree and lived a relatively quiet life ... so that was a really stark difference out of the gate.’
That controversial public statement
Asked about what they perceived to be a level of racism and sexism that greeted news of their relationship and led Harry to issue an unprecedented public statement on the issue, Meghan said: ‘of course it’s disheartening.
‘You know it’s a shame that that is the climate in this world, to focus that much on that, or that that would be discriminatory in that sense, but at the end of the day I’m really just proud of who I am and where I come from, and we have never put any focus on that, we’ve just focused on who we are as a couple.
‘And so when you take all those extra layers away, and all of that noise, I think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together and tune all the rest of that out.’
Harry on the stars aligning
Harry said: ‘The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect. It was this beautiful woman just sort of literally tripped and fell into my life, I fell into her life.
‘And the fact I know that she’ll be really unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me because she’ll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it.
‘We’re a fantastic team, we know we are, and we hope to have as much impact for all the things we care about as much as possible.’
The future
Meghan, who already has a philanthropic profile of her own, clearly intends to extend this as a member of the Royal Family.
But she insisted she didn’t feel she was giving up her career by marrying Harry, saying: ‘I don’t see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change. It’s a new chapter. Right?
‘And also, keep in mind, I’ve been working on my show for seven years, so we were very, very fortunate to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series, and for me, once we hit the 100th episode marker I thought, “You know what? I have ticked this box” and I feel really proud of the work I’ve done there and now it’s time to work as a team with you.’
Harry did admit he feels a ‘ sense of responsibility’ for what he was asking her to take on and had talked the issue with his girlfriend head on. He said: ‘of course, that sense of responsibility was essentially from day one or maybe a couple of months in, when I suddenly realised actually this is...
‘I feel, I know that I’m in love with this girl, and I hope that she’s in love with me, but we still had to sit down on the sofa. I still had to have some pretty frank conversations with her to say, you know what you’re letting yourself in for, is ...it’s a big deal and it’s not...it’s not easy for anybody.
‘But I know that at the end of the day she chooses me, and I choose her, and therefore whatever we have to tackle together or individually we’ll always be us together as a team, so I think she’s capable...... She’s capable of anything.’
He added: ‘And together there’s a hell of a lot of stuff and work that needs doing. At the moment for us it’s going to be making sure our relationship is always put first. But both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change for good, and with lots of young people running around the Commonwealth that’s where we’re going to spend most of our time hopefully.’
And on children?
Broody Harry said diplomatically: ‘Not currently, no! No, of course, you know, I think one step at a time, and hopefully we’ll start a family in the near future.’