The Secret Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Kept From Public Revealed, Insiders Claim
There is one major detail of the couple’s relationship timeline that is off.
In November 2017, just a little over a year after they started dating, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement. In a joint interview with the BBC on November 27, the couple revealed many details about their courtship, described how the engagement went down, and Prince Harry even revealed when he knew that the Suits star was "the one." However, according to insiders, the couple's narrative about their engagement wasn't exactly accurate. In fact, one royal expert claims that Harry and Meghan kept one major secret from the general public surrounding their relationship.
According to Valentine Low, royal expert, and journalist, the couple got "engaged in secret" several months prior to making their big announcement. She writes all about it in Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind The Crown.
Low maintains that the couple, who reportedly started dating in July 2016, knew each other for less than a year when Harry popped the question. And, it happened at least four months prior to their announcement. This would mean that Meghan had already agreed to Harry when her famous interview with Vanity Fair was published, in which she confirmed that her relationship with Harry was serious.
Meghan claimed that the engagement happened during an average night at Nottingham Cottage, where the couple was living at the time. She was cooking roast chicken when Harry popped the question. "It was just an amazing surprise. It was just so sweet and natural and very romantic," she gushed. "He got on one knee. As a matter of fact, I could barely let [him] finish proposing. I was like, 'Can I say 'yes' now?'"
Kensington Palace admitted that at the time of the engagement announcement, the engagement had previously occurred. "His Royal Highness and Ms Markle became engaged in London earlier this month. Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family," it said. "Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms Markle's parents."
According to Low, the reason why the couple didn't announce their engagement earlier was that they wanted it to become a secret. However, everyone in the royal family knew about it. "The interview was, in effect, Meghan's big launch," she says. "The couple were not officially engaged – though everyone in Kensington Palace knew they had been privately engaged since the late summer – but this was Meghan putting herself out there in a confident, pro-active way."
