Prince Harry’s life changed forever on Friday, July 1, 2016, when a beautiful and talented American actress slid into his Instagram DMs.
While you might expect members of the royal family to meet the loves of their lives in more regal ways, the Duke of Sussex revealed he got chatting to Meghan Markle on the social media app in his book Spare.
He came across Meghan while scrolling through his feed, spotting a photo of her with one of the app’s filters - showing her with dog ears.
The fun picture was posted by his friend Violet and he messaged her straight away to ask who the mysterious woman was.
The pal replied saying he was the seventh guy to ask about Meghan, but that didn’t dampen Harry’s hopes.
Violet told him about Meghan’s career and explained she was in the UK to watch tennis at Wimbledon. She then asked Harry if he wanted her to pass his Instagram handle onto Meghan, which he agreed to.
And then, the following day, a message popped up on his screen.
It said: “Hello! Beautiful photos.”
Harry explains that the majority of his Instagram snaps were from his trips to Africa.
He admits to looking through her page, so he already knew she had also been to the continent which gave them a good starting conversation point.
Pre-royal Meghan was a big fan of Instagram, using the platform to share fun and meaningful photos and memes.
She also shared holiday snaps and pictures from inside her home, giving her loyal followers an insight into her life.
Once rumours of her deepening romance with Harry began, she dropped a massive hint that there was a new man in her life - a photo of two bananas spooning. She captioned it “sleep tight”.
The couple spoke about their early relationship during their Netflix show, Harry & Meghan.
Harry remarked: "Meghan and I met over Instagram . I was scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had a video of the two of them, it was like Snapchat."
Meghan then explains she decided that using Instagram was the best way to judge the prince, rather than reading stories about him on the internet.
Harry shared some of his Instagram snaps during the programme, featuring animals in the wild, sunsets, and conservation work from his time in Botswana.
One of the images shows Harry doing a handstand on the beach while another is of him caring for an injured rhino.
Talking about the image Harry presented of himself, Meghan continued: "So I went through and it was just like beautiful photography and all of these environmental shots and this time he was spending in Africa."
As for the name choice for his account, it's previously been claimed that it comes from a combination of his nickname and favourite music artist.
In their book Finding Freedom, biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claim Harry's private Facebook profile from years earlier fell under the alias of 'Spike Wells' - a nickname given to him by Scotland Yard officers.
And for the name choice of the Instagram account handle, the biography on Harry and Meghan alleges that 'SpikeyMau5' was a mix of his nickname and a tribute to one of his favourite musical artists, Deadmau5.
The book says: "Although she shared much of her London visit on social media, Meghan knew she had to keep her dates a secret, but the clues were there.
"Around the time of their first encounter, she began to follow a mysterious-looking Instagram account by the name of @SpikeyMau5.
"With no face visible in the profile photo, just a mouse-shaped helmet, it would have meant nothing to most people. But it was in fact Harry’s private account."
It continues: "A big house music fan, he crafted the pseudonym by using part of the name of one of his favourite DJs, Deadmau5.
"Spikey came from a Facebook alias that Harry used for an account he had under the name of Spike Wells. 'Spike' was a nickname sometimes used for the prince, particularly by Scotland Yard officers.
"Harry's Facebook account (before he shut it down) had a profile photo of three guys in Panama hats taken from the back in an MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel suite.
"The account said he was from Maun, Botswana. Prior to that photo, Harry used the image of King Julien, the eccentric lemur from the Dreamworks movie Madagascar."
