Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Relationship Timeline

A royal affair! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship has been on the world’s radar ever since news broke in 2016 that they were dating.

The pair were introduced through mutual friends that July. One year after their first encounter, the Suits alum addressed the pair’s courtship for the first time.

“We’re a couple. We’re in love,” she gushed to Vanity Fair at the time. “I’m sure there will be a time when we will have to come forward and present ourselves and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time. This is for us. It’s part of what makes it so special, that it’s just ours. But we’re happy. Personally, I love a great love story.”

Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in November 2017. After tying the knot in May 2018 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, England, the queen gave them the additional title of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The couple welcomed their son, Archie, the same month they celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary. The pair have been able to spend more time with their little one while quarantining amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were both there for his first steps, his first run, his first fall, his first everything,” Harry said during a conversation on International Day of the Girl in October 2020, while Meghan added, “I think it’s just fantastic, because I think in so many ways, we are fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow. And in the absence of COVID, we would be traveling and working more externally, and we’d miss a lot of those moments. So I think it’s been a lot of really good family time.”

Harry and Meghan announced in February 2021 that they are expecting their second child together. The happy news came after the California native suffered a miscarriage in July 2020.

They have remained by each other’s side through thick and thin. As the former Tig blogger continued to be targeted British tabloids, Harry spoke out how he has a responsibility to shield her and their son, Archie, from harm’s way.

“I will always protect my family, and now I have a family to protect,” he said in ITV’s Harry & Meghan: An African Journey documentary in October 2019. “I will not be bullied into a game that was responsible for killing my mother [Princess Diana]. So everything that she went through and what happened to her is incredibly important every single day. And that is not me being paranoid, that is just me not wanting a repeat of the past.”

Harry and Meghan announced their step back as senior members of the royal family in January 2020 with plans to work to become financially independent. They left the British Army vet’s native U.K. for California in March 2020.

More than one year after their shocking exit, Buckingham Palace confirmed in February 2021 that the duo informed Queen Elizabeth II that their decision to step down as working members of the royal family will be permanent. “While we are all saddened by their decision, the duke and duchess remain much-loved members of the family,” the monarch’s statement read.

Scroll down to see a timeline of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s romance so far.