(Culture)

Meghan Markle Was Prince Harry’s Celeb Crush Two Years Before They Met

Among the many signs that this royal couple is meant to be together, none more concretely proves it than this: According to a royal insider, Prince Harry had a crush on Meghan Markle for a whole two years before they met. (We’re not crying—you are.)

In a new documentary titled When Harry Met Meghan: A Royal Romance, commentator Katie Nicholl reveals Harry’s first introduction to the actress was actually on-screen—that is, through her paralegal character Rachel Zane on Suits. Apparently, the prince was quite the fan of the legal drama, and he reportedly told friends about his celeb crush. “The reason I know is because I was having drinks with one of his friends,” Katie shares. “She [Harry’s friend] told me she’d been on a night out with Prince Harry. He was single at the time, so she said, ‘Harry, who’s your ideal girl?’ And he said, ‘Meghan Markle from Suits.'”

It gets better: Last year, he asked their mutual friend Markus Anderson, who was a consultant for Soho House, to set up a meet with Meghan, since the two friends were both in London to support Serena Williams at Wimbledon. “That happened in one of the private rooms of Soho House,” Katie says. “There were about seven or eight of them all together, and it was the perfect opportunity for Harry and Meghan to come together in a really informal environment and actually talk.”

And talk they did, as Harry apparently soon discovered she was “funny, feisty, confident—and she wasn’t swayed or knocked by the fact that he was Prince Harry.” (It also helps that she found him “terribly cute,” Katie adds.) As we know, the rest is history. The program airs on Channel 4 in the UK Saturday night (TBD when it’ll be shown in the US).