When Prince Harry first came across Meghan Markle, it wasn’t at a red carpet event, a charity occasion, or even through a formal introduction. It was through Instagram and a dog filter. In Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, he wrote about the first moment he saw Meghan, on a friend's Instagram page.

In a blunt six-word remark, he wrote: "I'd never seen anyone so beautiful." He detailed: "I was sitting around Nott Cott, scrolling through Instagram... They were playing with a new app that put silly filters on your photos. Violet and the woman had dog ears, dog noses, long red dog tongues hanging out. This woman with Violet...my god. I watched the video several times, then forced myself to put the phone down. Then picked it up, watched the video again." An 'Instagram dog filter' was a social media trend that saw an animated animal image being applied to a user's face.

He also depicted how there was a "wild joy" about her. He wrote: "I'd never seen anyone so beautiful. There was an energy about her, a wild joy and playfulness. There was something in the way she smiled, the way she gazed into the camera. Confident. Free. She believed life was one grand adventure, I could see that. What a privilege it would be, I thought, to join her on that journey. I got all that from her face. Her luminous, angelic face."

By 2017, engagement rumors were swirling, and in November of that year, the couple officially announced they were engaged. Harry proposed over a cosy roast chicken dinner at their Nottingham Cottage home, which was described during the couple's first broadcast interview.

On May 19, 2018, the world watched as Meghan walked down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle to marry Prince Harry.

However, life behind palace walls wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed, as later described by the royal pair.

Harry and Meghan announced in early 2020 that they would step back from royal duties, seeking financial independence and the family eventually re-located to Montecito, California.

In December 2022, their self-titled documentary premiered on Netflix, offering an intimate look at their love story and struggles with royal life.

In January 2023, Prince Harry released his memoir Spare, shedding further light on royal tensions and his personal life. It sold more than 1.43 million copies in all formats in the United States, Canada and Britain, including pre-orders, according to its publisher, Penguin Random House.