Meghan Markle Asked 1 Question When Relationship With Prince Harry Went Public
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle started dating in the summer of 2016, and before long their relationship became public. Ahead, how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reacted. Spoiler: it involved a party. And the one question the former Suits star asked when paparazzi descended upon her home.
Harry and Meghan were in Toronto when their relationship became public
After dating for nearly four months, Harry and Meghan’s relationship was no longer a secret. The news they were a couple went public on Halloween 2016. The now-Duke and Duchess of Sussex learned what was happening shortly before when they were at Meghan’s then-home in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“One night late in October in Toronto, Harry was happy, and so was Meghan. Until they received a call from one of Harry’s aides at Kensington Palace. It wasn’t good news,” Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in 2020’s Finding Freedom (via Mirror). “A tabloid was going to run with the story of their relationship.”
“Their main worry was that her place would be besieged by photographers within 24 hours. They had little time to think because there were only a couple of paparazzi in Toronto. But it wouldn’t be long before photographers flew in from New York and LA, all hoping to get that first picture of the happy couple.”
Harry, the authors claimed, was flooded with calls from staff, and refused attempts from those who tried to persuade him to return to London, England, because he’d gone to Toronto with a smaller-than-normal security team.
Together, they received upwards of 100 messages from old friends and acquaintances asking about their romance.
‘Terrified’ Meghan asked a friend if ‘this is how it’s always going to be’
Durand and Scobie claimed the level of fame that came with dating a British royal proved to be a huge shock to Meghan. “Prior to meeting Harry, the only times she experienced cameras were on a set or on a red carpet,” they wrote.
One particular incident when a photographer waited in her backyard left Meghan shaken, remarking to a friend, “‘This is how it’s always going to be, isn’t it?’”
“Shortly after the news broke, a photographer from an LA-based photo agency had scaled the fence into her back garden and waited for Meghan by her car, hoping to get a picture before she headed out to run errands. Meghan was terrified and called the police.”
Harry and Meghan were partly ‘relieved’ and ‘naive’ as tabloid, paparazzi interest began
“We’d been so petrified of when it would break,” Meghan recalled in her and Harry’s eponymous 2022 Netflix docuseries. “H [Harry] trying to prepare me for what that might be like, knowing what he had experienced in the past.”
Meghan went on to recount how Jason Knauf, Harry and Prince William’s then-communications secretary, called Harry “to let him know that the story was scooped by a tabloid.” His response? “‘Well, if it’s going to come out tomorrow, then let’s go and have fun tonight.’”
So, that’s what they did. Meghan, Harry, his cousin, Princess Eugenie, and her now-husband, Jack Brooksbank, went to a Halloween party at Soho House together with Meghan’s friend, Markus Anderson.
“It was so great. Just silly fun,” Meghan went on. “And then, the next morning, it was so overwhelming. I said, ‘OK, well then, I’ll just treat it like we’re in the bush [like when she and Harry camped in Botswana]. Because, like, it’s all foreign to me, but I trust that you’ll keep me safe, and you’ll get me through it.”
“Naively, I didn’t know what I was walking into in October of 2016, when suddenly, everything changed,” Harry said. While they “both felt tremendous relief,” with a flurry of happy messages from friends and family, “that very quickly changed,” Meghan said.
