5:57
- ABC News
- Royal Family
- November 27, 2017
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are engaged
The marriage would be the first for Prince Harry.
5:57
After Markle decided to shut down her lifestyle blog, The Tig, and discontinue her clothing line with a Canadian retail chain last spring, royal watchers began to speculate that her relationship with Harry had become serious. Markle, who had been extremely active on social media, scaled back her presence online.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/FFN-prince-harry-Meghan-Markle-ml-170306_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Markle, a Northwestern University graduate, is a humanitarian ambassador for the charity World Vision. Her shared interest in charitable endeavors with Harry, who is called \"the prince of hearts\" for his humanitarian work, reportedly helped the couple bond and fall in love.
Harry and Markle's relationship was confirmed by Kensington Palace in November 2016 when the palace issued an unprecedented statement that Harry would not tolerate \"harassment and abuse\" of her.
Of the coverage of Markle, Kensington Palace wrote, \"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.\"
Ragland, a Los Angeles–based social worker and yoga instructor, is African-American. Thomas Markle, an Emmy Award-winning lighting director, is white.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/prince-harry-meghan-markle-spl-jpo-170925_4x3t_384.jpg\")
The couple met through mutual friends at Soho House in London in July 2016 and quickly became inseparable, spending time at Harry's Nottingham cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace and in Toronto, where \"Suits\" is filmed.
Harry and Markle were photographed for the first time together in December 2016, on their way to see a play in London's West End. They traveled to Norway in early 2017 to see the Northern Lights and to Jamaica in March 2017 for the wedding of Tom Inskip, a friend of Harry's from his days at Eton.
![\"Meghan](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/AP_MARKLE_MOM_MO_20170930_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Markle was Harry's date to Pippa Middleton's and James Matthews' May 2017 wedding reception at the Bucklebury home of Middleton's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton. That invitation was notable because it was the first time Harry invited Markle to join him at an event with William and Kate and their two children, Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.
In August 2017, Harry and Markle traveled to Africa together on a three-week holiday to celebrate Markle's 36th birthday in Botswana before a romantic visit to Victoria Falls.
Tomorrow's front page: Besotted Prince Harry wraps an arm around girlfriend Meghan Markle on romantic holiday for her 36th birthday pic.twitter.com/kf6VBiGMog
— The Sun (@TheSun) August 4, 2017
Markle made her first official appearance at a royal engagement as Harry's girlfriend in September, when she sat a few rows from Harry at the opening ceremony for the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style competition founded by Harry for wounded service members.
Harry and Markle held hands at an Invictus wheelchair tennis competition, in a carefully choreographed public coming out for the couple.
Ragland joined the couple at the Invictus Games' closing ceremony. Royal watchers pointed to her inclusion at such a high-profile event as a sign that an engagement was no longer a matter of if but when.
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