Ten years ago this month, Prince Harry’s secret romance with an American TV star was revealed to the world, after months of clues scattered across social media via friendship bracelets, peonies – and a pair of hugging bananas.
And what a decade it’s been. A royal wedding, Megxit, two children, their notorious Oprah Winfrey interview, a fallout with his brother and the bombshell memoir Spare.
The relationship was announced on October 30, 2016, however Harry’s now-wife, the Duchess of Sussex, had been leaving a breadcrumb trail on the internet about her high-profile relationship for months.
The couple met on a blind date in July 2016, before agreeing to go out again the following night.
They were ‘in their own little world’ for three hours, drinking beers and martinis at London’s Dean Street Townhouse, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand revealed in their 2020 book Finding Freedom.
And it appeared Meghan, now 45, couldn't resist dropping hints while 'secretly' dating the now 42-year-old prince.
On July 1, 2016, Meghan posted a picture of herself standing next to an enormous bunch of pink and white peonies in bloom, with the caption: ‘Swooning over these. #London #peonies #spoiledrotten.’
Just two days later, she posted a picture of a single Love Heart sweet with the words 'kiss me' on it – writing ‘Lovehearts in #London’ to her 2.4million followers.
Harry revealed the pair had only ‘met twice’ before sharing a tent together and he was amazed Meghan agreed to join him
Meghan said that she was 'swooning over these' peonies she received in London in July 2016
Around the same time as Meghan posted the peonies, she revealed details of their romance to American make-up mogul Bobbi Brown
Months before Harry officially confirmed their relationship that November, Meghan captioned a July 17 photo of two interlocking red-tipped matches, forming a heart shape, with the caption: ‘Sunday kind of love.’
Meghan also posted a picture of a card with the words ‘the foolish wait’ on it, but soon afterwards she flew to stay with Harry in Botswana.
He revealed details of the intimate trip in their engagement interview, saying: ‘We camped out with each other under the stars.
‘She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.
‘So then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to know each other.’
In their Netflix series, Harry revealed that the pair had only ‘met twice’ before sharing a tent together and he was amazed that Meghan agreed to join him.
He later revealed it was on that trip he decided Meghan was his ‘soulmate’.
Meanwhile on Meghan’s Instagram, which she later deactivated, she published an image of two bananas cuddling, with the caption: ‘Sleep tight xx.’
One excited friend commented: ‘Yay!’ on the snap.
On November 1, Meghan posted this picture on Instagram, which she captioned 'Sleep tight xx'
Meghan posted this picture on 21 October, wearing the notorious blue-and-white beaded bracelet that belonged to Prince Harry
On July 19, Meghan posted more peonies, with the caption: ‘Because I’m spoiled rotten. #thankyou #peonies #theynevergetold.’
Around the same time, Meghan revealed details of their romance to make-up mogul Bobbi Brown while the pair filmed a tutorial.
Meanwhile, Harry was going to great lengths to conceal their relationship, taking commercial flights to Toronto, where Meghan was filming Suits, and travelling with just one plain-clothed protection officer instead of his usual two. His girlfriend, however, was being much less careful.
During the make-up tutorial, filmed in the back of an Uber, Meghan revealed she was ‘dating a fellow from the UK’.
Luckily, the millionaire founder, now 69, was more subtle about this than Meghan herself, and chose not to delve deeper.
‘At the time of the shoot she was telling me about a fellow she had just started to date from the UK. I didn’t ask who,’ Bobbi later revealed in a birthday Instagram tribute.
Then there was Meghan’s more blatant revelation to fashion designer Roland Mouret, 65, whom she met in a lift at Soho House Istanbul in 2015.
The pair remained close and, in 2016, Meghan told him she’d met a ‘nice British guy’ on the phone.
Fashion designer Roland Mouret revealed in his biography that he already knew about Meghan dating 'a prince' before it was public
In excerpts from his new book I am Roland Mouret, serialised by The Times, he revealed: ‘I said, “What does he do?”
‘She hesitated. “He's a prince.” I knew she was in love. It was the amount of breath mixed in with her words, finely balanced but revealing, just like a perfume.
‘There was only one British prince. We knew who we were talking about.’
Mouret offered to send a selection of dresses to Kensington Palace for her, to which Meghan replied ‘yes please’.
She also slipped information to former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh, 37, whom she met at the same hotel opening in Istanbul.
Speaking on her Mumlemmas podcast in 2023, Millie said she was ‘ghosted’ by Meghan after the relationship went public, but they had once got on ‘like a house on fire’.
Millie even gave Meghan a ‘little black book’ of favourite spots and contacts in London after meeting her.
‘When she would come to London, she didn’t know London very well or know that many people,’ Millie said, adding they would go to brunch or yoga classes together.
The last time Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh saw or spoke to Meghan was at Soho Farmhouse in September 2016
The last time she saw Meghan was in September 2016, during a girls’ weekend at Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds.
‘What I thought was going to be a day of yoga and chilling ended up being rosé and margaritas in the pool,’ Millie said.
She added that Meghan told her she had been messaging Harry on this day.
‘I didn’t ask too much of it, didn’t really think too much of it at the time,’ she said. ‘If only I had known.’
Not long afterwards, the relationship went public and Meghan ‘cut her dead’, Millie has claimed.
Elsewhere, Meghan gossiped about the relationship to her Suits co-star Abigail Spencer in public, in the tearoom at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where they were ‘screaming’ with excitement.
On Netflix’s Harry & Meghan, Abigail, 45, revealed the Duchess said: ‘I think I met someone and I'm in love. It's Prince Harry.'
Abigail added: ‘I could just feel everything in her body vibrating. We have a photo from that moment.
‘I was screaming because I could tell it was different... It was very clear from the moment she told me about him that they were in love and they were going to go to the ends of the earth to be together.’
Meghan gossiped about the relationship to her Suits co-star Abigail Spencer in public, in the tearoom at Bergdorf Goodman, where they were ‘screaming’ with excitement
Another Suits co-star Rick Hoffman revealed on the Today show that he heard the news of her relationship with Harry early on
Meghan also broke the news to another Suits co-star, Rick Hoffman, 56, shortly after meeting Harry.
He told the Today Show: ‘I had gotten the news early, and I was like, “You got to be kidding me”. And it was like, both of us in the trailer like, “Oh my. You're going – you're dating a prince?”’
Shortly before meeting Harry, Meghan had told friends she was looking for ‘a nice English gentleman to flirt with’, according to Finding Freedom.
In a much bigger clue to the identity of her new man, the actress posted multiple images of herself wearing Harry’s unique blue-and-white beaded bracelet.
In photos from a trip to Soho Farmhouse published on Instagram in mid-October, Meghan reached for a coffee table with her American passport on it, clearly showing the bracelet on her wrist.
In another image, she clutched a mug in her hand, once again exposing the bracelet.
Harry had been pictured wearing the bracelet since March that year, meaning people soon made the connection.
Meghan stopped wearing hers soon after the world found out about their relationship.
She continued to send messages with her jewellery, but stepped things up a notch price-wise.
In Finding Freedom, the authors claimed Meghan was left ‘frustrated and emotional’ after a Palace aide scolded her for wearing a 14-carat gold necklace with the initials H and M on it in December 2016.
‘She was advised that wearing such a necklace only served to encourage the photographers to keep pursuing such images – and new headlines,’ the authors wrote.
A source told the authors that Meghan spoke ‘very little’ on the call and later confided in a friend, saying ‘I can’t win’.
Meghan and Harry’s final secret date was at a post-apocalypse-themed costume party on October 29, after a press secretary told the couple their relationship was breaking in the papers the following day.
‘We went to this Halloween party together, where we could be completely dressed up and no one would know. Bandana and goggles, great costume,’ Harry, who covered his face for the party, told Netflix.
Meghan said: ‘We thought, "Well, this could be our last shot to just go out and have fun",’ and Harry added: ‘Pull the pin on the fun grenade, which we did.’
His cousin, Princess Eugenie, 36, and her husband Jack Brooksbank, 40, were also at the party that evening.