Is this finally the modern bride the royal family needs?
The wedding will take place in spring 2018
Meghan Markle to quit Suits after engagement to Prince Harry
Who is Meghan Markle? Profile of the actress, humanitarian and campaigner
Prince Harry is to marry his American actor girlfriend Meghan Markle, Clarence House has announced.
The official announcement said: “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms Meghan Markle. The wedding will take place in spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.
“His Royal Highness and Ms Markle became engaged in London earlier this month. Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms Markle’s parents. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.”
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge voiced their happiness at the news of the engagement, saying: “It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together.”
The leader of the DUP party accidentally heaped congratulations on the wrong Prince after it was announced that Markle and the prince were engaged.
Arlene Foster congratulated the couple via Twitter but accidentally addressed the message to Prince Harry’s brother. “Congratulations to HRH Prince William on his engagement,” she said.
Despite quickly deleting the tweet when she reposted a message she still managed to spell his future wife’s name wrong.
“Congratulations to HRH Prince Harry and Megan Markle on their engagement. Wonderful news this morning!” she said.
In December 2016, Markle wrote a column for Elle about establishing her identity as a mixed-race woman. As the daughter of an African-American mother and caucasian father, she explained her confusion at not knowing which box to tick on a form asking her ethnicity at school as the options were limited to white, black, hispanic or Asian.
At the beginning of her acting career, she said she often missed out on roles as she “wasn’t black enough for the black roles and wasn’t white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job.
Markle is a woman of many talents. She is an actress, entrepreneur, humanitarian and racial and gender equality campaigner and is a UN women’s advocate (for Political Participation and Leadership).
Who is Meghan Markle? Profile of the actress, humanitarian and campaigner engaged to Prince Harry
The bride-to-be, who rose to fame for playing ambitious paralegal Rachel Zane on Suits, has been married once before.
Markle married film producer Trevor Engelson in Jamaica in 2011 but they broke up after just two years.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has wished the newly engaged couple “great fun together”.
“I wish them well, hope they have a great time and great fun together. Having met Harry a couple of times I’m sure they’re going to have a great deal of fun together,” he said.
Here are some nuggets of advice the Duchess of Cambridge might offer Markle, her future sister-in-law, as she gets ready to embark on a life with the Windsors.
This is the advice Duchess Kate might give to Meghan Markle
We know that Prince Harry will marry Markle in Spring 2018 but further details of the wedding have yet to be announced.
Royals usually have a short engagement and are traditionally during the week rather than at the weekend.
We know when the royal wedding will be
Messages of congratulations have flooded in for Markle and the royal.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, longtime Channel 4 News anchor, speculated about whether there would one day be some mixed race royal offsprings
Markle will leave Suits when season seven ends, ahead of her marrying Prince Harry.
US Weekly had reported the move ahead of the official announcement of the pair’s engagement, only fuelling the ongoing rumours the announcement was imminent
Visiting Poundbury in Dorset the Prince of Wales said he was “thrilled” and “very happy indeed” for the happy couple.
Markle, who rose to prominence for playing ambitious and determined paralegal Rachel Zane on US legal drama Suits, has described herself as biracial and “half black and half white” on her website.
“My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African-American. To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman,” Markle has previously said.
an hour ago
Markle opened up about her relationship with the prince in an interview with Vanity Fair this September.
She said: “We’re two people who are really happy and in love. We were very quietly dating for about six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time, and the only thing that changed was people’s perception.
British Prime Minister Theresa May offered her “very warmest congratulations” to the prince and bride-to-be.
Markle’s parents have wished their daughter and Prince Harry “a lifetime of happiness”.
In a joint statement released by Kensington Palace, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland said: “To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents.”
The couple will take part in a broadcast interview to be broadcast this evening UK time.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated news of the engagement in a statement.
“We are very excited for Harry and Meghan. It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together,” they said.
Prince Harry and the Suits actress will appear at a photo call at Kensington Palace later this afternoon.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement was officially announced by the Prince of Wales on Monday morning. Here is the statement in full: