Meghan Markle's 13-word answer to 'whirlwind' Prince Harry engagement comment

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex got engaged around 18 months after their first secret date in Soho House in 2016, but Meghan had a surprise reaction to their relationship being described as a "whirlwind."

The pair sat down to answer questions about their romance for the first time during their engagement interview with the BBC in November 2017, shortly after Harry proposed in the grounds of their Kensington Palace home.

"I don't think I'd call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship. Obviously there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good 5 or 6 months of just privacy which was amazing.

"But no I think we really able to have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other even though we were obviously doing a long-distance relationship – we made it work," Meghan said.

She described their early dates as "authentic and organic", explaining that she did not know much about the royal family before meeting Harry so everything she learnt was through information he had personally shared as opposed to news stories.

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The couple were set up on a date by a mutual friend after Harry caught sight of Meghan with a dog filter on Snapchat. Recalling their early exchanges, Meghan said on the couple's Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan: "And then she sent [their friend] me an email saying: 'I know you said you're single and, a friend of mine asked about you, and maybe you'd like to meet him.

"And I said: 'Really who is it?' And she said: 'It's Prince Haz.' And I said: 'Who's that?'.

"I asked if I could see his feed. So that's the thing when people say did you google him, no, but that's your homework, let me see what they're about in their feed, let me see what they're saying about them not what someone else says about them but what they are putting out about themselves. That to me was the best barometer."

For their first date, the duo had drinks at 76 Dean Street. While the date was cut short since Harry was 30 minutes late and Meghan had to leave for dinner with a friend, they met again the following evening.

They soon organised for the former Suits actress to visit the royal in Botswana for several days where they "camped under the stars" and got to know one another.

The Duke proposed to Meghan with a trilogy engagement ring featuring diamonds from his late mother Princess Diana's collection after cooking a roast chicken dinner at their home Nottingham Cottage.

"I wanted to do it earlier. Because I had to ask permission from my grandmother, I couldn't do it outside of the UK," he explained in their docuseries. "I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was roasting a chicken and that kind of slightly gave the game away.

"She was like, 'You never drink champagne, what's the occasion?' And I was like, 'I don't know, I just had it like, lying around, whatever,'" Harry joked, and Meghan laughed: "It was a magnum!"

He then set up a secret picnic blanket in the walled garden surrounded by electric candles and white flowers.

In their engagement interview, Meghan said: "It was a surprise, and so sweet and very romantic."

The royals got married in May 2018 and now live in Montecito with their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

LOOK: Whirlwind royal engagements! Princess Anne's secret proposal, King Charles' delayed wedding & more