‘IT WAS AS IF HARRY WAS IN A TRANCE’
Book reveals friend’s verdict on whirlwind romance of cocktails, secret encounters ... and their first ‘I love yous’
‘Almost obsessed with each other’
PRINCE Harry was so ‘obsessed’ with Meghan Markle after their first date it was as if he was ‘in a trance’, a friend revealed in the bombshell book.
By the second meeting, Harry ‘knew they would be together’, with the American actress ‘ticking every box fast’, the source said.
And within just three months, they had said ‘I love you’ to each other, the book says.
A friend of Meghan’s said it was Harry who said it first, but Meghan immediately replied, ‘I love you, too’ and from there ‘it didn’t take long for them to begin talking in non-oblique terms about their future’.
Before their first date was set up, Meghan had previously joking to a friend that she would ‘settle for a nice English gentleman to flirt with’.
Recounting details of their first date in London, the authors of Finding Freedom, a new biography about the couple, said Harry and Meghan bonded over their ‘passions for wanting to make change for good’. Harry drank beer while Meghan sipped on a martini as they sat on club chairs at the trendy Soho House in Dean Street – a members’ club in London.
They were said to be so engrossed in each other they didn’t touch nibbles laid out in front of them and failed to notice the ‘rather rude wallpaper featuring photos of women’s private parts that adorned the walls’.
The pair became ‘almost immediately almost obsessed with each other’ a friend is quoted as saying. ‘It was as if Harry was in a trance,’ they added. The couple met in the summer of 2016 and are thought to have been introduced by fashion designer Misha Nonoo, a mutual friend.
The authors of the biography said the couple preferred to keep the ‘story of their matchmaker a mystery’ but said Meghan told friends at the time that her first encounter with Harry was ‘serendipitous’. She had just come out of a two-year relationship but was said to have still ‘believed in finding lasting love’.
Harry meanwhile was said to have ‘quickly realised that impressing Meghan was going to be tougher than just giving her one of his big smiles’.
He reportedly told friends: ‘I am really going to have to up my game here... sit down and make sure I’ve got a good chat.’
The authors of the book, serialised in The Times, said that on the date, the prince seemed to have impressed, as they were soon ‘in their own little world’.
Harry talked about his charity work, ‘excitedly telling her stories from his extensive trips to Africa’, they said.
At the end of the evening, which had lasted almost three hours, Harry and Meghan went their separate ways ‘despite the palpable attraction between them’.
‘There was no goodbye kiss, no expectation, just a hint that something was there and they hoped to see each other again soon,’ the authors wrote.
Meghan is even said to have called one of her girlfriends and asked them: ‘Do I sound crazy
when I say this could have legs?’ The couple returned to Dean Street Townhouse the next evening for a romantic dinner when they used a ‘discreet door away from prying eyes’, the book says.
One trusted waiter served them, in an effort to keep details private.
According to one friend quoted in the book, Harry and Meghan ‘chatted a lot’ but the evening, like the night before, ended chastely, with Harry returning to Kensington Palace despite their ‘electric chemistry’.
Describing how they flirted throughout, the authors said: ‘A touch of an arm here, direct eye contact there.’
The pair had now met just twice but Harry already knew ‘they would be together at that point’, a friend said, adding of Meghan: ‘She was ticking every box fast.’ Meghan, who was in London visiting, documented much of her trip on social media.
Around the time of their first encounter, Meghan started following Prince Harry’s private Instagram account which used the handle @SpikeyMau5.
The pseudonym is a nod to one of his favourite DJs, Deadmau5, while Spikey is said to have come from a Facebook alias Harry used – ‘Spike’ was a nickname sometimes used for the prince, particularly by Scotland Yard officers.
With just an image of a mouse-shaped helmet visible to the public, there was no clue to the account holder.
On the night of their first date, Meghan also posted a photo of a Love Hearts candy with the inscription ‘Kiss Me’ and the caption ‘Lovehearts in #London’ on her public Instagram account.
Later, she is said to have visited Harry at Kensington Palace, taking a taxi to a private entrance.
The authors wrote: ‘Meghan was then met by a protection officer. She was ushered down a cobbled path of small mews cottages, which she later commented looked so tiny and perfectly appointed with manicured flower boxes and pots that they hardly looked real.
‘When Harry opened the door, the prince towered in the small hallway with lots of coats hung on hooks and his boots by the door, just like any regular home.’
Six weeks later, Harry took Meghan to Botswana where the pair stayed in £1,500-anight tents.
A friend is quoted as saying: ‘She came back smiling and
‘Completely spellbound’
just completely spellbound.’ Meghan’s phone was also said to be full of photos, including selfies of her and Harry.
‘I’ve never felt that safe that close to someone in such a short amount of time,’ she reportedly told a friend.
They continued their relationship in secret with Harry flying out to Canada to spend time with her.
But the authors said that ever since the couple’s trip to Africa, ‘their romance had been on a fast track’.
‘Technically the getaway was just their third date but by then, they were each already dancing around the idea that this just may be a for ever thing,’ a friend said.
But Meghan was said to be ‘all in’ despite warnings from friends about the dangers of getting involved with somebody with his profile.