Royal announcements can be tricky, which is why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry revealed their secret engagement to close friends way before making the big news public, according to a forthcoming royal biography, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. The biography by Harper’s Bazaar royal expert, Omid Scobie, and Buckingham Palace correspondent, Carolyn Durand promises to unveil the “true story” of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s life in the royal family.
This update about the couple’s secret engagement comes after the latest installment of Finding Freedom, which is being serialized in outlets like People and the U.K’s The Times. According to Scobie and Durand’s book, Meghan, 38, and Harry, 35, decided to tell their close friends about their engagement before making their public announcement. In fact, their engagement was already a secret for some time: “The couple made their public debut at the Toronto Invictus Games in September 2017 after over a year of dating, holding hands and smiling as they headed to watch wheelchair tennis,” People reported. “But there was a secret reason for their look of love: they were already engaged.”
Only a select group of friends and family were reportedly made aware of the couple’s engagement—and here’s how Meghan broke the news to her circle. “Before announcing the news of their engagement in November 2017, Meghan shared it with just a handful of close friends by texting them a photo of the ring,” Finding Freedom reveals.
The couple formally announced their engagement on November 27, 2017, via a series of statements by the royal family. “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle,” read a statement by Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles. “The wedding will take place in spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course. 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.”
Prince Harry later revealed, “It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage; just a standard typical night for us,” with Meghan adding, that it was an “amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic.”
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family is out August 11, 2020, and is available for pre-order now. According to a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, however, “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to ‘Finding Freedom’. This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
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