Meghan Markle has shared the moment she realised she had fallen in love with Prince Harry, recalling how the couple’s third date took them camping under the stars in Botswana.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, opened up during the third episode of her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan, which returned for a second season this week.
Hosting Queer Eye star Tan France, the former Suits actress reflected on her early romance with the British royal while the pair cooked French toast and decorated aprons for their children.
Asked if there was a defining moment when she knew she loved him, Markle replied: “Yes. That was our third date.”
France pressed her to explain, to which she revealed: “We met in Botswana and we camped for five days together.
“You really get to know somebody when you’re in a little tent together and there’s like, [gasps] ‘Oh, what is that outside the tent? That’s an elephant! Are we going to be safe?’ ‘Yeah, you're safe. OK.’”
The Duke and Duchess previously spoke about the same trip in their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.
At the time, Harry admitted he was stunned by her decision to join him.
He previously recalled: “I was astonished that she said yes. This woman that I’ve only met twice, she’s coming to Botswana, and we’re going to be living in a tent for five days. Wow.”
Reflecting further on the trip, Markle told France it was transformative.
“We could both just be completely ourselves,” she said. “There was no distraction. There was no cell phone reception. There’s no mirror. There’s no bathroom. There was no ‘How do I look?’ Thankfully, we really liked each other.”
France, who admitted he is “known for asking personal questions,” also asked who said “I love you” first.
“He told me,” Markle revealed, as France teased: “You’re starting to blush!”
With Love, Meghan returns to the streaming platform, two weeks after the couple announced a watered-down deal with Netflix.
They have signed a “multi-year, first-look deal for film and television projects”, in contrast to their reported $100 million (£74 million) contract five years ago.
Season one of With Love, Markle was savaged by critics, and the second installment hasn’t faired much better.
The Guardian has given it two stars, a one star improvement from the first installment, with critic Lucy Mangan writing, “it’s so boring, so contrived, so effortfully whimsical that, do you know what? In the end, it does become almost fascinating.”
Elsewhere, The Times’s Hilary Rose commented: “With Love, Meghan is baffling. It occupies the sweet spot where irrelevant meets intolerable” and The Telegraph’s Anita Singh, who gave it two stars, penned: “Prince Harry remains conspicuously absent from a needy, if marginally less mad, second series.”
Season two of With Love, Meghan is now streaming on Netflix
