Here's How Prince Harry Proposed

First came the announcement, then the photographs, now the interview. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Monday spoke with the BBC's Mishal Husain about how they met, how he proposed, and what's in store. The two were set up on a blind date by an unnamed mutal female friend. Markle says she didn't know much about the prince and just asked her friend one question: If he's "nice," because "if he wasn't kind, it just didn't seem like it would make sense." He had never seen Suits—the TV show she stars in—but said he was "beautifully surprised" upon meeting her.

• The early days: The Telegraph reports they spent their first two dates in London bonding over a shared desire to change the world; Harry then invited her to go camping in Botswana. "We camped out with each other under the stars, she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic." Markle says they enjoyed "a good five, six months almost of privacy, which was amazing" before their relationship went public. She says they haven't gone longer than two weeks without seeing each other.

• The proposal: It came on "a standard typical night in for us" while they were roasting a chicken—or "trying to"—at Nottingham Cottage, which is on the grounds of Kensington Palace. Markle describes the moment as "just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee ... I could barely let you finish proposing. I said 'can I say yes now?'" Adds Harry, "Then there were hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like can I give you the ring? She goes—oh yes the ring."
• More on the ring: "The ring is yellow gold because that’s her favorite," says Harry, per the Guardian, "and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds either side are from my mother’s jewelry collection to make sure that she's with us on this—on this crazy journey together."
• So what will her title be? The Telegraph explains that Harry will be given a title on his wedding day by the queen, and the vacant frontrunner is Duke of Sussex; that would make Meghan Her Royal Highness (HRH) the Duchess of Sussex. Should Harry decline to take a title she'd be HRH Princess Henry of Wales, but the Telegraph sees that as "unlikely" considering his close relationship with the queen. It offers a long history on the title.
• Media coverage: Markle said some of the media coverage she received as the daughter of a black mother and a white father was "discriminatory" and "disheartening." But "at the end of the day I am proud of who I am and where I have come from and we have never put any focus on that, we have just focused on who we are as a couple."

• Markle's mom: A source tells People that Harry asked Doria Ragland for her daughter's hand. The magazine points to an August 2017 piece for Glamour in which Markle writes of the 10 women who changed her life: "My mom’s a yoga instructor, but she does social work, as well, and she works specifically with the geriatric community. For me to watch this level of lifelong sensitivity to nurturing and caregiving, but at the same time my mom has always been a free spirit. She’s got dreadlocks and a nose ring. She just ran the LA Marathon. We can just have so much fun together, and yet, I’ll still find so much solace in her support. That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend."
• "Groundbreaking": Time details five ways in which the couple's engagement is "groundbreaking." Here's one: Markle is Catholic, and prior to 2015, Harry wouldn't have been permitted to marry her due to royal succession rules. They were changed upon the birth of William and Kate's first child, and also allow firstborn daughters to take the throne.
• Their romantic pasts: People notes that Markle married film producer Trevor Engelson in September 2011; they divorced two years later. The AP has a long look at Harry's dating history and why his two previous serious relationships failed.

(More Prince Harry stories.)