Given the surplus of news about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle these days, it's tough to remember
a time when they weren't making headlines. That being said, they haven't actually been together
for a super long time, especially compared to the long courtship of Prince William and
Kate Middleton, who met in the early 2000s before finally getting married in 2011.
Harry and Meghan met on a blind date in 2016 at Soho House's Dean Street Townhouse in London,
according to Harper's Bazaar. Even though their relationship moved quickly, the first date wasn't
completely smooth, according to an excerpt from the book Finding Freedom, which says,
"Harry quickly realised that impressing Meghan
was going to be tougher than just giving her one of his big smiles."
Harry allegedly said to himself:
"I've got to up my game here."
And apparently, he did, since they reportedly had dinner again the next night.
After dining at Soho House two nights in a row, they switched things up a bit, enjoying a night in
at Prince Harry's cottage at Kensington Palace. Six weeks after meeting, the pair traveled to
Botswana. Three months into their relationship, Harry was the first to say "I love you," which
Meghan said back to him. And from that point on, their relationship moved forward full steam ahead.
In November 2017, they announced their engagement – a year and a half after meeting.
"It was so sweet and natural and very romantic, he got on one knee… of course."
The couple got married in May 2018 and welcomed their son, Archie, in May
2019. Despite some first date nerves, they seemingly clicked pretty much immediately,
but when exactly did they know their romance was the real deal?
Going from a first date to a second date within
24 hours is a definite sign that date number one went pretty well. However,
Harry and Meghan's second date was apparently the most pivotal one during their early courtship.
According to Finding Freedom, Harry knew
after the second date that she was the one. A friend of the couple claimed:
"Almost immediately they were almost obsessed with each other."
Even so, Harry and Meghan's relationship wasn't actually super public right away. Instead,
they took some time to get to know each other in private, dating rather secretly until they felt
more confident that they had a future together. During a 2017 Vanity Fair interview, Meghan said,
"We're two people who are really happy and in love. We were very quietly dating
for about six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time,
and the only thing that changed was people's perception."
The actress went on to insist that nothing about her changed, adding,
"I'm still the same person that I am, and I've never defined myself by my relationship."
Although Harry and Meghan decided to keep their relationship quiet at first,
word got out eventually with many media outlets reporting on their relationship.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all favorable, or fair. As a result,
Harry felt compelled to step up and speak out in her defense, officially referring to Meghan
as his "girlfriend" in a November 2016 statement that he shared via his communications secretary.
The statement acknowledged that Harry had never been particularly comfortable
with the extreme curiosity surrounding his private life.
But this time, he felt the media went too far with commentary about Meghan,
claiming that she had been subject to abuse and harassment. The statement noted:
"Some of this has been very public — the smear on the front page of a
national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces;
and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments."
Markle told iTV,
"I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair,
and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile."
Additionally, Harry was concerned for his girlfriend's safety and his ability
to protect her. He issued the statement in hopes of preventing "further damage."
The very public statement served as another sign that he was in the relationship for the long haul.
It may not be as conventionally romantic as a dinner date,
but Harry made it clear that he wanted a future with Meghan.
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