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Culture > Entertainment

Meghan Markle & Prince Harry: The Story Behind Their Royal Romance

Bibbidi, bibbidi, bobbidi, boo! Lucky for you, your Fairy Godmother (aka me) is granting you the story of how the latest royal couple, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, met and fell in love.

Now this isn’t just any modern day love story where two people swipe right on Tinder, meet up for a cheap dinner, and hook up once or twice. This is a story of chance and how a friend played matchmaker, and the couple bloomed from there.

According to E! News, the couple’s mutual friend, Violet Van Westenholz was actually their Cupid in disguise. Because Violet’s father is a baron, she’s actually known Prince Charles for quite some time now, putting her right in Prince Harry’s group of friends. She met Meghan while doing PR for Ralph Lauren as Meghan rose up in London’s high society scene. Violet’s little sister, Victoria, was even considered a candidate to be Prince Harry’s ~true love~, but luckily, Meghan and Prince Harry were set up on a blind date back in summer 2016.

 

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This spark of love proved to be something special as Prince Harry obviously can’t date like us normal people these days. No dating apps. No serial dating. And the girl has to be just the right match for the Royal Family. Meghan, I’m sure, probably came as a breath of fresh air to Harry. 

During their engagement interview, Meghan said, “It was definitely a set-up. It was a blind date. I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was, I had one question, I said ‘Was he nice?'”

Prince Harry, on the other hand, was totally blown away as soon as he saw Meghan. His first thought? That he really needed to step his game up.

 

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Meghan reportedly passed the Royal Family test when she met Queen Elizabeth II back in September 2017. Prince Harry was so sure about Meghan following their trip to Botswana, that he whisked her away to his family estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland with one task in mind: to have Meghan meet his grandmother. NBD. Of course, she had already charmed her way into Prince Harry’s parents’ hearts, along with his older brother Prince William, but the final test was to charm the Queen. And it only took Meghan a year to meet the Queen, in comparison to Duchess Kate Middleton’s five-year wait (which happened at the 2008 Royal Wedding, btw). Pretty impressive if you ask me. 

Despite the public’s gossip about whether or not Meghan’s “normal” upbringing would leave her fit to join the Royal Family, the introduction went pretty well. This just goes to show that even if you’re raised by a therapist and lighting director in Los Angeles like Meghan, even commoners have the opportunity to become Royalty. With his grandmother’s approval of Meghan, Prince Harry was able to propose.

A cute fact about Meghan’s engagement ring: Prince Harry custom-made the ring, using diamonds from a brooch that belonged to his mother, the lovely Diana, Princess of Wales, whose life was taken far too soon. This seems like a really sentimental move by Prince Harry, showing his soon-to-be-wife that he has the most love for her.

While being interviewed by BBC last November, Prince Harry spoke about whether or not his mother and Meghan would’ve gotten along. “They’d be thick as thieves, without question,” he said. “I think she 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 with Meghan.” Aw. I’m crying. 

Some might consider Meghan and Prince Harry’s love story to be one of love-at-first-sight, since the two had already made their way to Botswana after only two dates! Fast forward to today, the couple is now preparing to tie the knot this Saturday, May 19.

Everyone is surely Royal Wedding obsessed right now, and we couldn’t be happier for the (almost) newlyweds. 

I'm a Culture and Media student in New York City. I moved all the way from Southern California to pursue my dreams of writing style and entertainment pieces and becoming more and more myself. Some may consider me a film junkie, astrology queen, and an extreme vegan. But to me, I'm just a writer babe in the big city.