Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have opened up about their royal engagement after their forthcoming nuptials was officially announced by the palace this week. They shared details in an interview about the proposal, how they met and how their relationship has flourished in the last year and a half.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pictured following their engagementPrince Harry and Meghan Markle pictured following their engagement

With the royal wedding set for the Spring of 2018, the British Royal Family's newest couple are preparing for quite a journey ahead of them. So it's just as well that they've had the last few months to spend some alone time together as a couple at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.

'[The proposal] happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage. Just a standard, typical night for us', said Harry, with both he and Meghan recalling that they had been trying to roast a chicken when the question arose.

'It was just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee', Meghan added. 'As a matter of fact, I could barely let you finish proposing. I was like, 'Can I say yes now?''

While it's well known that the pair met in Toronto while Harry was out there promoting the Invictus Games, what you might not have realised is that their meeting was a blind date set up by one of their friends. 

'We were introduced by a mutual friend', Harry explained. 'Then we met once and then twice back to back, two dates in London last July and then it was about 3 maybe 4 weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana. We camped out with each other under the stars and we spent maybe five days out there and then we were really by ourselves.'

It was that kind of time together that helped them bond and, ultimately, make the decision to spend the rest of their lives with each other. 'We were able to have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other', Meghan said,

Their relationship was also helped by the fact that neither of them knew very much, if anything, about each other to begin with, and thus got the chance to learn about one another first hand. Meghan is American, so the Royal Family wasn't such a big deal for her growing up.

'Because I'm from the states you don't grow up with the same understanding of the Royal Family', she insisted. 'So, while I now understand very clearly there's a global interest there, I didn't know much about him and so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she wanted to set us up was, 'Is he nice?''

As for Harry, Meghan was a completely new person to him. 'I'd never even heard about her', he admitted. 'I'd never watched 'Suits', and I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and there she was sitting there and I was like, 'Ok, well I'm really going to have to up my game'.'

More: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are engaged

Now that Meghan has quit her acting career in favour of a marriage filled with responsibilities, both are excited to embark on a new journey together and discuss the kind of charitable causes and engagements they want to get involved with in the future.