Harry and Markle met for the first time on a blind date in early July of 2016. During the couple’s first sit-down interview with the BBC after their engagement announcement, Harry revealed, “We were introduced actually by a mutual friend.” (Harry’s friend Violet von Westenholz is said to have introduced them, although some believe it was fashion designer Mischa Nonoo, according to E! News.)

Despite Prince Harry’s international celebrity, Markle claims she had little preconceived ideas regarding him until meeting him. “You don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family because I’m from the United States,” she explained during the BBC interview. “I didn’t know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, ‘Well is he nice?’ Cause if he wasn’t kind, it just didn’t seem like it would make sense.”

They hit it off right away. “We met for a drink, and then I think very quickly into that we said, ‘Well what are we doing tomorrow? ‘” Markle explained, ‘We should meet again.'”

Following their engagement announcement, Harry was asked when he learned Markle was the one at a photo call in the Kensington Palace gardens. “The first time we met,” he immediately responded.

From there, things went smoothly. The pair went on a second date, and three or four weeks later, Prince Harry asked Markle to join him on a trip to Africa. He described the whirlwind relationship, saying, “I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars. Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other .”

According to E!News, “Meghan had been a part of the London social scene for a while and had slotted into the high society set really easily. And so when Harry told Violet he was having trouble finding someone, Violet said she might just have the perfect girl for him .”

Despite being a member of London’s social scene, Meghan had no knowledge of her future husband when they first met.