Here’s Prince Harry’s ‘under the stars’ love story with Meghan Markle

In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry reveals the fascinating story of his romantic under-the-stars love story with Meghan Markle.

He first noticed Meghan through a mutual friend’s Instagram story and later asked the friend to facilitate their introduction. This led to a lengthy online conversation between Harry and Meghan, which resulted in them arranging a date for the following evening.

Meghan, who was in London at the time to attend the Wimbledon Championships, agreed to meet Harry at Soho House.

That day, Harry was running late because of traffic – but he was instantly charmed. “We both had our first dates with nothing to talk about, and now we both feel that special thrill when there’s so much to talk about, when there’s not enough time to say it all. What needs to be said is done,” he wrote.

But the date ended almost as quickly as it had started, with Harry explaining that he already had dinner plans. He wrote, “If I had not been late we would have had more time. I cursed myself, got to my feet. A brief goodbye hug.” “Poof, she was gone. Compared to her, Cinderella was the queen of saying goodbye for a long time.”

After their dates, Harry invited Meghan to visit Botswana, a country very close to his heart. “We camped with each other under the stars,” he explained in their engagement interview. “She came and stayed there with me for five days, which was absolutely fantastic.

“Then we were really alone, which was important to me to make sure we got a chance to get to know each other.”

Prince Harry later said that during this trip he discovered that Meghan was his “soulmate”. The pair spoke more candidly about the trip during their documentary and revealed that their escapades in Botswana came after they had only met twice.

“I was surprised she said, ‘Yes,'” Harry recalled. “This woman, who I’ve actually met twice, is coming to Botswana, and we’ll live in a tent for five days!”

Prince Harry and Meghan last met before their relationship went public, at a Halloween party in 2016, as he told Ellen DeGeneres in a 2021 interview.

Meghan and Harry shared never-before-seen photos from the evening in their Netflix documentary, writing that they were tipped off that news of their romance was about to break, so they decided to “defuse the fun grenade” and share their Go out for a last personal walk.