One critical part of Netflix’s new documentary series Harry & Meghan is the return to the most romantic aspects of the love story between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In interviews, they reveal the truth about how they first met—they started by chatting on Instagram before getting drinks in London—and about how Harry knew that Meghan was the one. For the first time, they also went into detail about the prince proposed to his future bride back in November 2017.
The proposal came as Meghan was cooking a simple dinner for the couple at Nottingham Cottage, Harry’s small home in Kensington Palace. Meghan didn’t know that Harry had set out candles in the garden, but she did have a hint that something big was happening. “I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was greasing the chicken and that kind of slightly gave the game away,” Harry said in the series’ second episode. “She was like, ‘You don’t drink champagne. What’s the occasion?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know. Just had it laying around here, whatever.’”
Meghan pointed out that it was a pretty large bottle of champagne. “It was a magnum!” she said with a laugh. When Meghan figured out what was going on, she actually called a friend to share her excitement that she thought he was about to propose.
He eventually led her outside, and Meghan had her camera at the ready to film the proposal with her rescue beagle Guy and Harry splayed on a blanket. “In the North garden, being overlooked by the staff flats, I got 15 of those electric candles,” he said. “Of course I got down on one knee. Of course I did.”
Meghan adds “He’s down on one knee and I was just like, ‘Yes!’ We were so joyful and excited. I was like, ‘Ah, we’re doing this!’”
Though Harry said he already had one important piece of leverage, in the form of Meghan’s rescue beagle. “I knew she’d say yes,” he said. “But she’d already moved Guy over. So I had Guy as a hostage.” He added that he wanted to propose sooner, but he first had to secure permission from Queen Elizabeth II.
In the series’ first episode, Harry talked about how much Meghan reminds him of Princess Diana. “So much of what Meghan is—and how she is—is so similar to my mom,” he said. “She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her.”
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