Inside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's incognito Halloween party
Halloween marked a turning point for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their dating years, with Prince Harry sharing details of a fun night out before "everything was changed forever" in his memoir, Spare.
The royal sparked up a romance with American actress Meghan in the summer of 2016, after the pair were introduced by a mutual friend.
Harry and Meghan enjoyed dates at Soho House in London and a whirlwind trip to Botswana in the months before their relationship was revealed to the world.
Speaking on their Netflix docuseries, Harry and Meghan talked about a night out in Toronto for Halloween in 2016, where they "wanted to pull the pin on the fun grenade".
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Meghan previously spoke about the outing with Harry's cousin, Princess Eugenie and Eugenie's then future husband, Jack Brooksbank, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2021.
"The four of us just snuck out in Halloween costumes to just have one fun night out on the town before it was out in the world that we were a couple," Meghan said.
The theme of the party was post-apocalyptic, with the Sussexes sharing some personal snaps in their costumes from the night in the series.
Watch below…
Sharing more detail about the party in his book Spare, Harry revealed his nerves about his fancy dress costume.
He wrote: "We invited Euge and Jack to join us for Halloween. And Meg's best friend Markus. Toronto’s Soho House was having a big party and the theme was 'Apocalypse.' Dress accordingly. I mumbled to Meg that I’d not had great luck with themed fancy-dress parties, but I'd give it another go."
He continued: "For help with my costume, I'd turned to a friend, the actor Tom Hardy, before I left home. I'd phoned him to ask if I could borrow his costume from Mad Max.
"'The whole thing? Yes, please, mate!'
"The whole kit. He'd given it all to me before I left Britain, and now I tried it on in Meg's little bathroom. When I came out, she roared with laughter."
The day after their incognito night out, news of their romance was revealed.
A year later, Harry proposed to Meghan in the garden of his former Kensington Palace home, Nottingham Cottage. The pair tied the knot at St George's Chapel in Windsor in May 2018.
The Duke and Duchess now reside with their children, Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, in Montecito, Santa Barbara after stepping back as senior royals in 2020.
While the Sussex children are growing up out of the public eye, Meghan previously spoke about how Archie and Lilibet celebrated Halloween in 2021 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Meghan revealed: "We wanted to do something fun for the kids but the kids were just not into it at all. Archie was a dinosaur for maybe five minutes…"
Ellen, who joined the Sussexes for the annual holiday, replied: "No, not even for five minutes, finally Harry talked him into having the head on, but Lili was a skunk.
Meghan laughed and added: "She was a little skunk… like Flower from Bambi."
