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Prince Harry says Diana ‘would be over the moon’
He and Meghan Markle will marry next spring
Prince Harry says his mother “would be over the moon” about his engagement to American actress Meghan Markle.
During the couple’s first joint television interview on Monday after their headline-making engagement announcement, Harry described why he chose to include diamonds from Princess Diana’s personal collection for Markle’s engagement ring.
“The ring is obviously yellow gold because that’s (Markle’s) favorite, and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana, and the little diamonds either side are from my mother’s jewelry collection to make sure that she’s with us on this crazy journey together,” he said.
Harry shared that he imagined his mother would be “over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me, but then, as I said, would have probably been best friends — best friends with Meghan.”
Sitting side by side on a couch and holding hands, Prince Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, opened up about their relationship during their first official TV interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain, just hours after posing for photographers in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace.
At long last, royal watchers got answers to a few burning questions, including how Prince Harry popped the question — and it wasn’t in August on Markle’s birthday safari trip in Africa, as many had imagined.
“It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage; just a standard typical night for us,” the prince said.
“Just a cozy night, it was . ... What we were doing, just roasting chicken?” said Markle, recalling the moment. “Just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee.”
Was it an instant yes from Markle? “Yes. As a matter of fact, I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, ‘Can I say yes now?’ ” she said.
Harry says the Suits actress “didn’t even let me finish. She said: ‘Can I say yes? Can I say yes?’ And then there were hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like, ‘Can I — can I give you the ring?’ She goes — ‘Oh yes, the ring!’ ”
The couple also confirmed they’ve been together for roughly a year and a half and were set up by a mutual friend. They went on back-to-back dates in London, Harry said, and a few weeks after they met, the prince said, he was able to persuade Markle to join him in Botswana for five days.
“We camped out with each other under the stars,” he said. “Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other.”
Today, Markle has met the queen “a couple of times,” and Harry joked that even her corgis took to his bride-to-be right away.
“I’ve spent the last 33 years being barked at,” he riffed. “This one walks in, absolutely nothing ... just wagging tails.”
Raised in Los Angeles, Markle, who is Jewish, will become the first American to be welcomed into the British royal family. The Suits star will become a royal duchess and be titled Her Royal Highness. She will be the first actress and the first biracial person to marry a ranking member of the royal family.
The couple were asked about the scrutiny Markle came under at the beginning of their relationship, which caused Harry to break precedent and condemn racist and sexist remarks made toward his then-girlfriend.
“Of course it’s disheartening,” Markle said, but she added that the couple worked to tune out “the noise” surrounding their relationship. “It’s a shame that that is the climate in this world . ... 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.”
The couple will marry in spring 2018, according to the palace, and have several options for the big day. They could marry in Westminster Abbey, where Will and Kate were married in 2011 and where the queen and Prince Philip were married 70 years ago. Or they could opt for the even-bigger St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married.
But they probably won’t choose either, if they want to avoid the thousands of guests and the billions watching on TV for those royal weddings.
If they want a more low-key, smaller and quieter wedding, they could follow the lead of Harry’s father, Prince Charles: He married his second wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, a divorced woman, first in a tiny civil ceremony in the Windsor town hall followed by an intimate prayer service in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in 2005.
Where will they live? According to the engagement announcement, the couple will reside at Nottingham Cottage, Harry’s home on the Kensington Palace grounds.
On Monday, Harry said the engagement hubbub made him miss his mother even more. “It is days like today when I really miss having her around and miss being able to share the happy news, he said. “But you know, with the ring and with everything else that’s going on, I’m sure she’s ... “
“She’s with us,” Markle said. “I’m sure she’s with us,” Harry added. “Yeah, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else.”
“As a matter of fact, I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, ‘Can I say yes now?’ ” Meghan Markle