Before meeting her, Prince Harry had no idea Meghan Markle was the actress who played the sophisticated Rachel Zane on the TV series “Suits.” His first encounter with Meghan wasn’t through her acting career but rather on social media. In his memoir, “Spare,” Harry reveals that he first noticed Meghan in 2016 on a friend’s Instagram account, where he was instantly captivated by her.

As Harry recounted in his book, while relaxing at Nottingham Cottage—fondly known as ‘Nott Cott’—within Kensington Palace, he was scrolling through Instagram on July 1, 2016. It was then that a video posted by his childhood friend, Violet von Westenholz, caught his attention. In the video, Violet was seen alongside an intriguing woman.

Describing this pivotal moment, Harry wrote about how Violet and the unknown woman were playing with a new app that applied playful filters to photos. “They had dog ears, dog noses, and long red tongues, thanks to the app’s canine filter. Yet, even with the cartoonish overlay, I couldn’t help but sit up straighter. This woman with Violet… she was stunning,” he recalled.

Harry admitted to watching the video multiple times, captivated by the woman’s beauty, saying, “I had never seen anyone so beautiful.” This chance online encounter would eventually lead to a life-changing connection for both Harry and Meghan.

‘Violet and the woman had dog ears, dog noses, long red dog tongues hanging out. Despite the canine cartoon overlay, I sat up straighter. This woman with Violet… my God.’

He then proceeded to watch the video ‘several times’, as he admitted: ‘I’d never seen anyone so beautiful.’ 

‘She believed life was one grand adventure. I could see that. What a privilege it would be, I thought to join her on that journey. In that moment I felt there might be only one face for me.’ 

Harry fired off an urgent message to Violet, asking to be introduced to the mystery woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. 

Writing in his tell-all memoir Spare, Harry, 41, revealed the first time he ever laid eyes on Meghan, 44. While sat in ‘Nott Cott’ (Kensington Palace’s Nottingham Cottage), the prince came across a video of his friend, Violet von Westenholz, and a mystery woman

Violet replied almost instantly and told the prince that, while ‘six other guys’ had asked about Meghan, she was happy to ‘connect’ Harry and Meghan via Instagram. 

Soon after, he received a message from Meghan, who complimented him on the  ‘beautiful photographs’ he had shared from his travels to Africa. 

The pair exchanged numbers and were soon texting each other back-and-forth, as Harry recalled his thumbs were ‘cramping’ trying to keep up with the endless stream of messages.

Writing in Spare, Harry revealed that when he visited the home of English entrepreneur Sir Keith Mills for dinner shortly after, he was texting Meghan ‘throughout the long drive and up the stairs into his guestroom’.

‘I locked the door and remained holed up, texting. I sat on my bed texting like a teenager until it was time to have dinner with Sir Keith and his family. Then, after dessert, I quickly returned to the guestroom and resumed texting.

While the pair seemed to be from entirely different worlds, Harry described their differences as ‘organic’ and ‘energising’, and asked Meghan on a date before she was due to fly back home to Canada where Suits was also being filmed. 

Meghan suggested they meet for drinks at Soho House, ‘her headquarters whenever she came to London’, and booked a table for them at the exclusive member’s club on July 3, 2016. 

However, Harry recalled, he ended up being 30 minutes for their first date due to bad traffic.  

Recalling the moment he first caught glimpse of his future wife (pictured with Violet), Harry wrote: ‘Violet and the woman had dog ears, dog noses, long red dog tongues hanging out. Despite the canine cartoon overlay, I sat up straighter. This woman with Violet… my God’

Overwhelmed with interest, Harry sent Violet an urgent message to enquire about who her mystery friend was. Almost instantly, she responded. While she informed the prince that ‘six other guys’ had enquired about Meghan, she was happy to ‘connect’ the prince and actress

‘Red-cheeked, puffing, sweaty, half an hour late, I ran into the restaurant, into the quiet room, and found her sitting at a small area on a low velvet sofa in front of a low coffee table,’ he wrote in Spare. 

After a bumpy start, the pair fell into an easy conversation, with Prince Harry describing Meghan as ‘heart-attack beautiful’. 

Their date ended when Meghan had to rush off for her dinner plans, but the pair agreed to a second date over FaceTime later that evening.  

After another successful date at Soho House, Harry took their whirlwind romance one step further and invited Meghan on a week-long safari in Botswana. 

It was there that the two fell in love, during what was technically their third date.

When Harry eventually got down on one knee and asked Meghan to marry him on November 4, 2017, the dazzling £126,000 engagement ring included a blood-free diamond from Botswana.

During their engagement interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain at Kensington Palace later that month, Harry revealed that it was during that trip that he realised Meghan was his ‘soulmate’. 

‘She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic. Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other.’

For their third date, Harry invited Meghan on a week-long safari in Botswana. It was there that the two fell in love under the night stars. When Harry proposed on November 4, 2017, the dazzling £126,000 engagement ring included a blood-free diamond from Botswana

During their engagement interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain at Kensington Palace in late November 2017, Harry revealed that before he’d first crossed paths with his wife-to-be (pictured during her time on Suits), he had no idea who she even was

Later recalling their love story in part two of her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex confessed that she knew Harry was a keeper while they were in Botswana – despite it only being their third date

The prince also revealed that he had had no idea about Meghan’s stint on Suits, as he told Ms Husain: ‘I had never even heard about her until this friend said “Meghan Markle”. I was like “right, okay, give me a bit of background!”’

Meghan also claimed that she was relatively unfamiliar with the prince, telling the broadcaster: ‘I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was – I had one question. I said, “Well, is he nice?”‘ 

Later recalling their love story in part two of her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex confessed that she knew Harry was a keeper while they were in Botswana – despite it only being their third date.

‘We met in Botswana and we camped for five days together,’ the Duchess recalled. ‘You really get to know each other when you’re in a little tent together and it’s like – what is that outside the tent?’

‘That’s an elephant. Are we going to be safe? Yeah, you’re safe. OK.’

On November 8, 2016, Kensington Palace released a statement confirming Harry and Meghan’s relationship and, in May 2017, they attended their first public outing together at a polo match in honour of his former charity Sentebale. 

Meghan later spoke openly about her relationship with Harry for the first time in an interview with Vanity Fair for the October 2017 issue.

‘I can tell you that at the end of the day I think it’s really simple. We’re two people who are really happy and in love,’ she said.

‘I’m sure there will be a time when we will have to come forward and present ourselves and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time. 

‘This is for us. It’s part of what makes it so special, that it’s just ours. But we’re happy. Personally, I love a great love story.’