Prince Harry and actress and humanitarian Meghan Markle will marry on May 19, 2018, Kensington Palace announced on Friday. As previously announced, they will tie the knot at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Clarence House announced on November 27 that Prince Harry had proposed to Meghan Markle earlier in the month, after receiving her parents’ blessing. “It was a cosy night. We were just roasting chicken,” the former ‘Suits’ actress said in an interview with the BBC. “It was just an amazing surprise and it was so sweet, and natural and very romantic. He got down on one knee.” Calling it “a really nice moment”, Harry said, “It was just the two of us. I think I managed to catch her by surprise.” Markle, who has retired from acting, smiled and confirmed she was, in fact, taken aback. “I could barely let you finish proposing!” she said. “I said, ‘Can I say yes now’!”
Harry presented Markle with a ring of his own design, using a centre stone he sourced from Botswana—flanked by two smaller diamonds from his late mother Princess Diana’s collection.
“The fact that I fell in love with Markle so quickly was confirmation for me that all the stars were aligned,” Harry said of their seemingly whirlwind romance. “Everything was just perfect.”
On November 28, Kensington Palace announced Harry and Markle had selected a wedding venue and will marry in the month of May. Since 1863, the 14th century chapel has hosted a number of royal weddings—and in 2015, after a civil ceremony, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles’ marriage was blessed there. The royal family will pay for Harry and Markle’s wedding.
The wedding shouldn’t interfere with the birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s third child, due in April 2018; Harry’s unborn relative bumps him to sixth in line to the British throne.
Published in Daily Times, December 16th 2017.