Meghan Markle's 'two-week' dating rule initially left Prince Harry puzzled: 'How is that even possible?'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Despite their hectic schedules in the summer of 2016, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry maintained regular contact as the former laid down a rule that required them to see each other at least every two weeks — a condition that Harry initially found difficult to accept.
Harry juggled royal duties and Meghan was promoting 'Suits', yet neither wanted their first spark to fizzle.
Prince Harry arrived late on first blind date with Meghan Markle
Netflix’s 'Harry & Meghan' revealed how the pair carved out pockets of privacy to keep seeing each other despite continents and cameras.
Meghan flew to London in July 2016 to publicize season six of 'Suits' and, thanks to friend Markus Anderson, found herself on a discreet blind date with the prince at Soho House 76 Dean Street.
Harry had just returned from France’s Battle of the Somme centenary and arrived late, but conversation flowed.
It followed with a second meeting after Meghan called up and told Harry, “Look I’m leaving the day after tomorrow, do you want to grab dinner tomorrow night?"
"I’m sure he thought it was so forward and American,” Meghan Markle said during the show, as per the Daily Mail.
Prince Harry praises Meghan Markle's 'two-week rule' despite finding it hard to grasp initially
By early August that year she was back in Toronto, and laid down her now-famous guideline.
“She had a two-week rule, which was very smart, that said we had to see each other in, or around two weeks,” Harry recalled.
A the time, Harry pushed back asking, “How is that even possible with the stuff that I’m doing? I’m not going to be able to travel to see you that much."
However, Meghan reasoned that commercial flights would help her follow the rule unhindered.
“It was much easier for me to go and see him in the UK. I could still just get on a commercial flight and go and see him under the radar,” Meghan said.
The arrangement let her slip into Kensington Palace.
“Those first few months when no one knew, it made much more sense for her to come to me so then she could come and stay with me on Kensington Palace grounds,” Harry said.
Prince Harry fell in love with Meghan Markle 'incredibly quickly' during a five-day Botswana escape
Three weeks after their London dinners, the prince offered her to come to Bostwana
“It was three, maybe four, weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come join me in Botswana, and we camped out with each other under the stars,” Harry said.
He called those five days “absolutely fantastic,” adding, "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."
That solitude sealed his feelings. “I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly — it was a confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned,” Harry recalled.
In September 2017, the relationship finally became public.
Prince Harry 'wanted to find a wife' before meeting Meghan Markle
Prince Harry had been openly searching for something lasting. At a January 2016 birthday party he told presenter Denise van Outen, “I’m not dating and for the first time ever I want to find a wife,” according to the Daily Mail.
A few months later he told The Sunday Times, “At the moment my focus is very much on work but if someone slips into my life then that’s absolutely fantastic."
The pair got engaged in November 2017 and wed the following May. Yet their fairy-tale detoured into "Megxit" by January 2020, leading to their step-back from senior royal duties and US move.
The royal rift has ever since intensified following Harry's bashing of the family in his memoir 'Spare'.
More recently Harry lost his legal appeal for automatic UK security blaming King Charles interventions as the reason.
Although requesting reconciliation in BBC interview, rift has deepened. He also declared he "can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point."
