Emily Herbert - Harry & Meghan--The Love Story

I t was the most hotly anticipated announcement in recent Royal history. Prince Harry was to marry his girlfriend of 18 months, the US actress Meghan Markle. The announcement came in that most modern of ways, via an announcement from Clarence House on Twitter:

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle. The wedding will take place in Spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course. His Royal Highness and Ms Markle became engaged in Londonearlierthis month. Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty the Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms Markles parents. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.

A few hours later, the pair made a public appearance in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, Meghan elegant in a white coat, showing off her ring. It had been designed by Harry himself, with two of Princess Dianas diamonds flaking a larger central diamond from Botswana, set on a gold band. When did Harry know she was the one? a reporter asked. The first time we met, Harry replied. Meghan was beaming. It was the happy ending the world had been waiting for ever since news of the relationship began to come out.

The couple had been keeping the world on tenterhooks for months, with will they wont they speculation and certainly the advent of Meghan as a Royal bride was a huge indication of quite how much the Royal family had changed over the decades and kept up with the times. The last time an American divorcee had captured the heart of a Windsor, it had ended up with the abdication of Edward VIII. This time round there was no problem at all, with Harry not losing his place in the line of succession. Although given that his father, aunt and one uncle were also divorcees it could hardly have been otherwise.

Instead, there was nothing but happiness and good wishes from the rest of the Windsors. The Queen, whose permission Harry had had to ask, and Duke of Edinburgh issued a statement saying they were delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness. Harrys father, Prince Charles, said he was thrilled. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said they were very excited for Meghan and Harry It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together. The prime minister, Theresa May sent her very warmest congratulations and wished them great happiness for the future. And of course Meghans own parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, had their own input, saying they were incredibly happy and added, To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us.

Matters had moved both slowly and fast. The couples relationship had been confirmed a year earlier by none other than Harry himself, of which more below, but it had been less than two months since their first public appearance, at the Invictus Games in Toronto. It had also leaked out that the two had taken tea with the Queen, while Meghan had quit her role on the long-running television show in which she made her name, Suits. But most of the relationship had been conducted behind closed doors in London, Toronto and the various exotic locations to which Harry whisked his girlfriend, with information only gradually filtering out.

And Meghan was the first in almost every conceivable way for a Royal bride. She was an American, biracial actress who had already been married before. Her forebears on her mothers side had been slaves, a far cry from the members of European royalty and the British aristocracy, the breeding ground for many a Royal bride. Nor was her immediate background straightforward, with a cast of half-siblings commenting from the sidelines, sometimes in an extremely disobliging manner. But Meghan, like her sister-in-law to be Catherine Middleton had played a blinder, never referring to any family conflict, never badmouthing anyone. But she was no pushover either, proving equally willing to talk about the issues surrounding a mixed race identity. She was also, like Harrys late mother, a proven humanitarian, something which many speculated had drawn the two together. She had worked on a number of UN missions and crucially, as an actress, she was used to public scrutiny. She was certainly about to get enough of that.

Indeed, it was almost exactly one year earlier that the level of public scrutiny led Harry to issue an unprecedented and very personal statement asking that her privacy be respected, something no member of the Royal family had done before. It was long, informative, and confirmed something that until then had only been a rumour and the tone was so impassioned and personal that it appeared to have been something composed in the heat of the moment, rather than laboured over by civil servants and issued in the more usual sombre prose. It was early November 2016 and it stunned Royal observers, who had never before seen its like. So what prompted this highly unusual document, parts of which are reproduced below?

Since he was young, Prince Harry has been very aware of the warmth that has been extended to him by members of the public. He feels lucky to have so many people supporting him and knows what a fortunate and privileged life he leads. He is also aware that there is significant curiosity about his private life. He has never been comfortable with this, but he has tried to develop a thick skin about the level of media interest that comes with it [] But the past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, hasbeensubject to a wave of abuse and harassment [] Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markles safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her [] He knows commentators will say this is the price she has to pay and that this is all part of the game. He strongly disagrees. This is not a game it is her life and his.

The statement purported to come from the Communications Secretary to Prince Harry, but to anyone who read it, it was pretty clear it had actually been penned by the Prince himself. This was a statement that came straight from the heart so much so that some people wondered if Harrys older brother William would be concerned at both the tone and the content, not least as the relationship was at that point still a new one, and he perhaps felt Harry might have been wiser to remain tight-lipped about it until it had run a little bit longer. In the event, however, it emerged that William, who was very close to his brother, supported the move. The statement also made it quite clear that Harry had fallen head over heels. But it was also a sign that the relationship was far more serious than anyone had realised.

Speculation had been mounting for weeks that romance was in the air: although the two had not actually been pictured together, the beautiful American actress Meghan Markle was increasingly believed to be Harrys new girlfriend and it was the fact that some people were delving into her life and trying to find out more about her that had prompted the blast from the Palace. Harry clearly did not want history to repeat itself. The Prince had had two significant relationships in the past with Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas, but by the middle of 2016 had been single for a couple of years, although he often spoke movingly of his longing to settle down and start a family, like William. The relationship with Meghan could prove the happy ending the entire country was so keen for Harry to have, and for all his natural concern about his new girlfriend the intense interest in Meghan was also a sign of how much the nation held Harry to its collective heart.

For now it seemed that the woman with whom he might find his happy ending had finally appeared. The hints were there and mounting: sharp-eyed observers had spotted that the two of them had been pictured separately wearing the same blue-and-white bracelet, surely more than just a coincidence. Harry was wearing his when he attended a rehearsal of The Joyful Noise Choir, which was made up of people living with HIV, and which prompted more comments about how well suited the two of them were because they were both interested in good causes.