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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle secretly got engaged on a trip to Botswana two months before they officially told the world they would wed, a new book sensationally claims.
In August 2017, The Sun‘s world exclusive photos showed the smitten couple arriving on holiday together there.
“Who knows what will happen when they’re watching a sensational African sunset together?” a royal source told the publication at the time.
“Maybe he’ll get down on one knee.”
Harry and Meghan posed for photographs in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in 2017 following the announcement of their engagement. Picture: AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas
Over the weekend, The Sunday Times – which is serialising Finding Freedom, a new biography about the Sussexes – said Harry’s relationship with brother Prince William began to falter “shortly before the couple became secretly engaged in August 2017”.
Further details of the couple’s trip are likely to emerge when the book is published on August 11.
Back then, The Sun reported how Meghan, 38, had flown to London from her home in Toronto, Canada, after filming the last episode of what would be her final season on Suits.
She met Harry, 35, before jetting on to Botswana, where she gave the besotted prince a huge kiss before they set out on holiday together.
Until now the couple have always claimed their engagement took place over a low-key roast chicken dinner in November 2017.
But the book is expected to reveal their wedding plans were already a done deal.
In a TV interview with the BBC’s Mishal Hussain shortly after announcing their engagement, Harry claimed: “It happened earlier this month, just a standard typical night for us.”
Meghan added: “Just a cosy night, we were just roasting chicken.”
She also described how it was an “amazing surprise”.
“It was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee.”
It’s claimed the engagement story they told to the BBC wasn’t quite true.
According to the latest extract, Finding Freedom also reveals that Meghan – who has waged war against the paparazzi since becoming a royal – used to tip off the press and work with photographers for shots, a new book has revealed.
She and Harry are now furiously private, but before they got together, she would happily “set up a paparazzi photo here and there”.
Late last week, it was reported she and the Duke of Sussex are suing photographers over claims they took pictures of their one-year-old son Archie with a drone.
The couple are also embroiled in a legal battle over published letters sent to her father in the Mail on Sunday, in which they have blamed the press for relationship troubles.
The most recent claims says the pair “seek no special treatment” and want “the private life to which any family or individual has the right”.
But Finding Freedom reveals Meghan would court the press before beginning the relationship with Harry.
Meghan on a red carpet in 2016, before she met Prince Harry. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
It says: “While Meghan, before she met Harry, had occasionally set up a paparazzi photo here and there or let info slip out to the press, she did everything in her power to protect the privacy of her relationship with the prince.
“She knew that keeping things quiet meant that they could get to know each other without pressure or further worries that came from reporters covering and commenting on their burgeoning romance.”
She was disappointed when their relationship was found out, the book claims, but there was a “part of her that was relieved”.
A spokesman for Harry and Meghan said the pair did not contribute to Finding Freedom, but he did not deny the content of The Times‘ extracts.
The spokesman said: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom.
“This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
Originally published as Truth about royal engagement revealed
