10 of the Best Revelations from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s 2017 Engagement Interview — 7 Years Ago Today!

The Duke of Duchess of Sussex spoke about their love story — past, present and future — in a Nov. 27, 2017 sit-down

Seven (jam-packed!) years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement to the world.

On Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, the official announcement from Clarence House — the office of then-Prince Charles, Harry’s father — read, “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. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle’s parents. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.”

In a statement, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip — Harry’s grandparents — said they were “delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness.” Prince William and Kate Middleton — then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — added in a statement of their own, “We are very excited for Harry and Meghan. It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together.”

Harry, then 33 (now 40), and Meghan, then 36 (now 43), took part in a photocall that same day in the Sunken Gardens of Kensington Palace, once the home of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who died on Aug. 31, 1997, when Harry was just 12 years old. Afterwards, like his older brother William and sister-in-law Kate did upon announcing their own engagement on Nov. 16, 2010, Harry and Meghan sat down for an interview. Harry and Meghan were interviewed by Mishal Husain, and Meghan later said the day’s events felt “rehearsed” in the couple’s 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, adding that it felt like an “orchestrated reality show.”

“So we did the thing out with the press and then we went right inside, took the coat off, sat down and did the interview,” she added. “So it was all in that same moment.”

She said she was instructed to “show the ring” and said “we weren’t allowed to tell our story, because they didn’t want —” before Harry interjected with a laugh, “We were never allowed to tell our story.”

Here are the 10 best revelations from the interview seven years ago.

Related: Everything Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Said About Their Engagement 4 Years Ago: 'Just a Cozy Night'

They revealed how and when they got engaged

The couple — who met in the summer of 2016, less than a year and a half prior — confirmed their relationship in November of that same year and wasted no time preparing to walk down the aisle. After their official public debut as a couple on Sept. 25, 2017 at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games in Toronto — where Meghan was living at the time filming Suits — Harry told Husain that the proposal “happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage,” referring to Nottingham Cottage, where they lived at the time. “Just a standard typical night for us,” Harry continued.

“Just a cozy night, it was — what we were doing, just roasting chicken and having …” Meghan added, as Harry jumped in and added, “Roasting a chicken, trying to roast a chicken.”

“Trying to roast a chicken and it just — just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee,” Meghan said, to which Harry added, “Of course.”

Meghan told Husain that she could barely let Harry finish proposing before asking him, “Can I say yes now?”

“She didn't even let me finish,” Harry added. “She said, ‘Can I say yes? Can I say yes?’ and then [there] were hugs, and I had the ring in my finger and I was like, ‘Can I — can I give you the ring?’ She goes, ‘Oh yes, the ring.’ So no, it was — it was a really nice moment, it was just the two of us and I think [I] managed to catch her by surprise, as well.”

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Announced Engagement 6 Years Ago Today — How the Proposal Happened

In Harry & Meghan, they revealed more details about the proposal, including a sweet selfie Harry took the night of their engagement — which he later revealed in his memoir, Spare, was Nov. 4.

In the book, he wrote that he popped a bottle of champagne and set up a blanket on the grass in the walled garden of Nottingham Cottage. Harry wrote he “set electric candles around the blanket” because “I wanted it to look like Botswana, where I’d first thought of proposing.”

When he did pop the question, he asked Meghan, “Spend your life with me? Make me the happiest guy on the planet?” he wrote in the 2023 memoir. Meghan, of course, said yes.

"They were so happy and they were going to keep it quiet because it was going to be announced a few weeks later," friend Lucy Fraser said in an interview for the Netflix docuseries. "We had a little engagement party and everyone was dressed in animal onesies. And Meg and Harry were in matching penguin onesies because penguins mate for life, and they were so sweet and we had so much fun."

"She felt like they could take on the world," friend Lindsay Jill Roth added.

They revealed how they first met

The two revealed that they met through a mutual friend whom they didn’t name, with Meghan saying, “We should protect her privacy and not reveal too much of that.”

Harry added that they had two back-to-back dates in London in July 2016 before taking a third date trip to Botswana together “three, maybe four weeks later” where “we camped out with each other under the stars, we spent — she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic. So then we were really by ourselves. Which I think, which was crucial to me to make sure we had a chance to get to know each other.”

Meghan said their meeting was a set up, telling Husain, “It was a blind date. And it’s so interesting because we talk about it and now and even then, I, you know, because I’m from the [United] States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family and so, while I now understand very clearly, there’s a global interest there. I didn’t know much about him, and so the only thing that I had asked her [their mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, I had one question. I said, ‘Well, is he nice?’ ‘Cause if he wasn't kind, it just didn’t, it didn’t seem like it would make sense and so, we went and had a, met for a drink, and then I think very quickly into that we said, ‘Well what are we doing tomorrow? We should meet again.’ ”

When asked whether she thought their roughly 16-month courtship was a whirlwind, Meghan responded, “I don't think that I would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship. Obviously there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing. But no, I think we were able to really have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other, even though we were obviously doing a long distance relationship. So it's — we made it work.”

Harry admitted he’d never heard of her before they met

Though Meghan played Rachel Zane on the popular television show Suits, Harry admitted he’d “never even heard about her” until being set up by their mutual friend.

“I’d never, I’d never watched Suits, I’d never heard of Meghan before,” Harry said. “And I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her. There she was sitting there, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m really gonna have to up my game!’ ”

For her part, Meghan said that she “didn’t know a lot about him” either: “Everything that I’ve learned about him, I learned through him,” she said. “As opposed to having grown up around different news stories, or tabloids, or whatever else. Anything I learned about him and his family was what he would share with me. And vice versa. So for both of us, it was just a really authentic and organic way to get to know each other.”

“It was absolutely amazing to get to know her as quickly as I did,” Harry added.

They detailed how they made their long distance relationship work

With Harry based in London and Meghan in Toronto for the bulk of their courtship, they didn’t go more than two weeks without seeing one another, Meghan said. “It was just a choice. Right? I think that very early on, when we realized we were going to commit to each other, that we knew we had to invest in the time and the energy and whatever it took to make that happen. And, so yes. With the filming schedule, it was not the easiest, because it of course included a lot of travel. Back and forth,” she told Husain, to which Harry added, “Other than you had any idea what time zone you’d be [in] for the last year and a half.”

“Coming over here [to the U.K.] four days or a week, and then going back and then straight into filming the next day. 4 a.m. wake calls, on a Monday, straight into set, you know,” Harry continued, to which Meghan added, “Right off the plane and straight to set. Just coming back into it again.”

“And just trying to, just trying to stay as close as possible. But, you know, on two different time zones. And five hours apart does have its challenges. But, but you know, we made it work, and now we’re here. So, we’re thrilled,” Harry said.

Later in the conversation, Harry said, “We had to sort of reverse the whole process and cozy nights in front of the television, cooking dinner with just the two of us by ourselves in our little cottage rather [than] going out for dinner and being seen in public. So we reversed the whole process which it’s provided different opportunities. And has made us a hell of a lot closer in a short space of time. That's without question. So you know if anybody else ... maybe slow down to date, spend more time at home. But no, for us it's an opportunity to really get to know each other without other people, you know, looking, trying to take photos on the phones and that kind of stuff. That comes with it comes with the job.”

“And we were able to really get to know each other that way, but also then to go and have friends over for dinner or to go to his family's tea or any of those things and even you know just to take the time to be able to go on long country walks and just talk,” Meghan added.

Meghan said she had no idea what marrying into the royal family would be like

“I think I can very safely say, as naive as it sounds now, having gone through this learning curve in the past year and a half, I did not have any understanding of just what it would be like. I don't think either of us did,” Meghan said.

“No, I tried to warn try to warn you as much as possible, but I think both of us were totally surprised by the reaction after the first five, six months where we had to ourselves of what actually happened from then,” Harry said. “So I think you can have as many conversations as you want and try and prepare as much as possible, but we were we were totally unprepared for what happened after that.”

When Husain interjected with “The scrutiny,” Meghan said, “I mean, I think also because there was a misconception that because I have worked in the entertainment industry that this would be something I would be familiar with. But even though I've been on my show for I guess six years at that point and working before that, I've never been part of tabloid culture. I've never been in pop culture to that degree and [have] lived [a] relatively quiet life, even though I focused so much on my job. So that was a really stark difference out of the gate. But, and I think we were just hit so hard at the beginning with a lot of mistruths that I made the choice to not read anything, positive or negative. It just didn't make sense and instead we focused all of our energies just on nurturing our relationship.”

Specifically addressing comments about Meghan’s biracial identity, Meghan said, “Of course, it's disheartening. You know, it's a shame that that is the climate in this world, to focus that much on that or that that would be discriminatory in that sense, but I think, you know, at the end of the day I'm really just proud of who I am and where I come from, and we have never put any focus on that. We've just focused on who we are as a couple. And so when you take all those extra layers away and all of that noise, I think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together and tune all the rest of that out.”

They spoke about Meghan’s future life as a working royal

“For me, it's an added member of the family,” Harry said of Meghan becoming a working royal after their royal wedding day, which would ultimately be May 19, 2018. “It’s another team player as part of the bigger team, and, you know, for all of us, what we want to do is be able to carry out the right engagements, carry out our work and try and encourage others in the younger generation to be able to see the world in the correct sense rather than perhaps being just having a distorted view. So you know, the fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was a sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned. Everything was just perfect. It was this beautiful woman just sort of that — she tripped and fell into my life; I fell into her life.”

“The fact that she'll be really unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is almost a huge relief to me because she'll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it,” he added. “But, no, we're a fantastic team. We know we are. And, we hope to over time try and have as much impact for all the things that we care about as much as possible.”

Meghan hinted that she would be leaving her Hollywood career behind as she said, “I think what's been really exciting as we talk about the transition of this out of my career but into the role is that, as you said, the causes that have been very important to me, I can focus even more energy on. Because very early out of the gate I think you realize once you have access or a voice that people are willing to listen to — with that comes a lot of responsibility, which I take seriously. And at the same time I think in these beginning few months and now being boots on the ground in the U.K., I'm excited to just really get to know more about the different communities here, smaller organizations we're working on the same causes that I've always been passionate about under this umbrella. And also being able to go around the Commonwealth, I think, is just just the beginning of that.”

“There's a lot to do, there’s a lot to do,” Harry said.

Of leaving her life in her native U.S. and her career as an actress to move to the U.K. and become a full-time working royal, Meghan said, “I don't see it as giving anything up, I just see it as a change.” To this, Harry added, “It’s a new challenge.”

“It’s a new chapter. Right. And also keep in mind I’ve been working on my show for seven years. So we're very very fortunate to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series and for me, once we hit the 100-episode marker I thought, you know what, I have ticked this box and I feel really proud of the work I've done there and now it's time to, as you said, work as a team with you,” Meghan added, referring to Harry.

Harry admitted he felt a ‘sense of responsibility’ for Meghan

To the point of Meghan uprooting her life, Harry said, “That sense of responsibility was essentially from day one or maybe a couple of months in, when I sort of realized actually, this is, you know, I feel I know that I'm in love with this girl. And I hope that she is in love with me. We still have to sit down and I still, you know, I still have to have some pretty frank conversations with her to say you know what you're letting yourself in for — it's a big deal and it's, you know, it's not easy for anybody. But I know that at the end of the day, she chooses me and I choose her. And therefore, you know, whatever we have to tackle together or individually, will always be us together as a team. So I think she's capable.”

“She's capable of anything,” he added. “And together, as I said, there’s a hell of a lot of stuff, work that needs doing. At the moment for us, it's going to be making sure that our relationship is always put first, but both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change for good. And you know with lots of young people running around the Commonwealth, that's where we’ll spend most of our time, hopefully.”

After marrying in May 2018, the couple ultimately stepped back as working members of the royal family in January 2020, relocating to California, Meghan’s home state — where they remain today.

They opened up on their future plans to start a family

When asked about children, Harry cheekily said, “Not currently, no.” He quickly followed up with “No, of course you know. I think you know one step at a time, and hopefully we’ll start a family in the near future.”

Their first child, Prince Archie, was born in May 2019, with daughter Princess Lilibet following in June 2021.

Speaking about meeting each other’s families, Meghan said that the royal family had “been so welcoming,” adding she’d met not just members of the royal family but the Spencer family as well, Princess Diana’s family.

“The family has been great, and over the past year and a half we've just had a really nice time getting to know them and progressively helping me feel a part of not just the institution but also part of the family, which has been really, really special,” she said.

Of meeting Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth, Meghan said, “It's incredible, I think, you know, a) to be able to meet her through his lens, not just with his honor and respect for her as the monarch, but the love that he has for her as his grandmother — all of those layers have been so important for me so that, when I met her, I had such a deep understanding and, of course, incredible respect for being able to have that time with her. And we've had a really — she's an incredible woman.”

Harry added that “the corgis took to you straightaway” — referring to Queen Elizabeth’s famous dogs — and he added, “I've spent the last 33 years being barked at; this one walks in, absolutely nothing.”

“Just laying on my feet during tea,” Meghan added. “It was very sweet.”

Meghan details meeting Prince Charles, Prince William and Kate Middleton

In addition to meeting the Queen, Meghan had, by this point, met Harry’s father Charles, brother William and sister-in-law Kate. Of the latter, Meghan said, “She’s been wonderful.”

Harry added of his father that they’d had “a handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings over at his place.”

“The family together have been absolutely, you know, a solid support, and my grandparents as well [Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip] have been wonderful throughout this whole process, and they've known for quite some time,” Harry said. “So how they haven't told anybody is again a miracle in itself. But now the whole family have come together and have been a huge amount of support.”

“They’ve been amazing,” Meghan added.

When asked if her parents were worried about what she was jumping into, Meghan said, “Well, I'm sure [at] the onset both my parents and my close friends were concerned, because we got very quickly swept up in a media storm that, as I shared, was not part of my life before that. But they also had never seen me so happy. And I think also once my friends were able to really meet Harry, and my mom, who we've spent a lot of time with, who is so much fun … It was just obvious that, no matter what we were being put through, that it was just temporary and that we were going to be able to get through that. So everybody was really happy.”

Meghan said that Harry hadn’t met her father, Thomas Markle, yet, but that he had met her mother Doria Ragland, to which Harry added, “Her mum’s amazing.”

At last, conversation turns to Meghan’s ring

As the interview closed, the conversation turned towards Meghan’s ring, made of yellow gold because that’s “her favorite,” Harry said. He added that the main diamond was sourced from Botswana — where they grew close so early in their courtship — “and the little diamonds on either side are from my mother’s jewelry collection to make sure that she’s with us on this crazy journey together,” he said.

“It’s beautiful, and he designed it,” Meghan said. “It’s incredible.”

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She added, “I think everything about Harry's thoughtfulness is — and the inclusion of that [Princess Diana’s diamonds] and obviously not being able to meet his mom, it's so important to me to know that she's a part of this with us.”

When asked what Diana might have thought of Meghan, Harry said, “Oh, they'd be thick as thieves, without question. I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me, but then, as I said, would have probably been best friends with Meghan. So no, it's days like today when I really miss having her around and miss being able to share the happy news. But you know, with the ring and with everything else that's going on I'm sure she's …”

“She’s with us,” Meghan said.

“I'm sure she's with us, yeah, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else,” Harry concluded.