Meghan Markle Was Prince Harry's Celebrity Crush for Years
James Austin
Updated on February 23, 2026
When you look at the relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, you assume that she's the one who landed her dream guy, because he is, after all, a prince, and while she's a major star the fact that she's not a royal makes her more or less a "normal."
According to some recent reports, however, it would seem that things might just be the other way around. In an upcoming Channel 4 documentary called When Harry Met Meghan: A Royal Romance, royal commentator Katie Nicholl says that Harry developed a major crush on the actress while watching the USA drama Suits, in which she stars as paralegal Rachel Zane.
"He had a crush on Rachel Zane two years before he met Meghan and the reason I know is because I was having drinks with one of his friends," Nicholl says. "She [Harry's friend] told me she'd been on a night out with Prince Harry. He was single at the time, so she said, 'Harry, who's your ideal girl?' And he said, 'Meghan Markle from Suits."
Naturally, when Meghan Markle showed up in London in June 2016 to support her friend, Serena Williams, at Wimbledon, Prince Harry asked a mutual friend of theirs to introduce them. Nicholl emphasizes that the meeting was an "introduction" and not a "date," which is why he pulled the old I'm-having-a-party-no-its-totally-not-just-for-you trick.
"He asked Markus if he could set up, not a date, but an opportunity for them to meet and that happened in one of the private rooms of Soho House… There were about seven or eight of them altogether and it was a perfect opportunity for Harry and Meghan to come together in a really informal environment and actually talk."
Nicely done, Harry.
It seems the non-date went really well, as Nicholl said Prince Harry later described her as a "crackling girl," which is polite British English for smart, sexy mama. According to Nicholl, Markle "thought he was terribly cute."
After rumors about the two began swirling last fall, the couple was forced to go public with their relationship via a passive aggressive but very romantic official statement to the public in which he asked people to leave his poor girlfriend alone, after a "wave of abuse and harassment" left him "worried about Ms. Markle's safety and…deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her." It was a very rare move, and one that made it clear that he was taking what was at that point a relatively new relationship very seriously.
By all accounts, it seems that things have gone swimmingly from there. In September, Markle raved about her relationship with Harry to Vanity Fair, saying "we're two people who are really happy and in love."
Shortly afterwards, they made their first public appearance together as a couple at the Invictus Games looking, indeed, very much in love.
It seems wedding bells are certainly on the horizon, and if so, they truly will be one of the luckiest couple's in history. After all, not many people can say they married their prince and their celebrity crush!
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Diana Bruk Diana is a senior editor who writes about sex and relationships, modern dating trends, and health and wellness.Read moreFiled UnderNews • Prince Harry • Royal FamilyRead This Next10 Things You Didn't Know about Justin Trudeau
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