Once upon a time, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were complete strangers who just happened to be set up on a blind date.
And in new details from her upcoming book, Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss and Love, royal reporter Katie Nicholl delves deep into the royal couple’s first encounter. The first big tidbit: It wasn't Markle’s friend Misha Nonoo who had set up the two on their first date, contrary to what many royal fans believe.
It was actually a mutual friend, Violet von Westenholz, a publicist for Ralph Lauren and reportedly one of Markle’s bachelorette attendees, who made the connection. Supposedly, the Duchess of Sussex attended Wimbledon back in 2016 as a guest of Ralph Lauren, and it was right around the time when Markle first met Prince Harry. Prince Harry is a good friend of Von Westenholz and that’s who gave Harry Markle’s phone number.
In an excerpt from the book, Nicholl also reveals that after that first blind date, the two arranged to meet up again soon after. This time, at the swanky and private members-only Soho House in London, run by another mutual friend, Markus Anderson (whom Markle ate dinner with when she was in New York City this spring). During this second meet-up, Harry and Markle chatted over a bottle of chilled rosé, Nicholl writes (and the rest, as they say, is history).