During summer 2016, the two spent five days together in a tent in Botswana and it changed the course of their relationship.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s third date to Botswana was a significant turning point in their relationship. As Prince Harry shared in their engagement interview, “It was fantastic.” The two spent five days together, and got very serious about each other.
In Harry & Meghan, their new Netflix docuseries about their love story, the two open up about their time in Botswana—and share never-before-seen photos from the trip.
“That summer, was going to be on hiatus from work but I had travel plans. And a cast mate of mind had said, ‘Make sure you leave room for magic,'” Meghan says.
“And as we were talking about, ‘When are we gonna see each other next?’ He said, ‘I have to go to Africa to do some conservation work. I have one week off.’ I said, ‘I have one week off.’ It was the same week. So he said, ‘Do you want to come to Botswana?”
Prince Harry was “astonished” that she said yes. “This woman that I’ve only met twice. She’s coming to Botswana and we’re going to be living in a tent for five days.”
“I’m getting on the plane and I’m going to the middle of the bush? What? What am I doing? Like, what if we don’t like each other…and then we’re stuck in the middle of the bush in a tent?” Meghan says.
Her friend, Lindsay Jill Roth, then adds, “It was a leap. But I think in her heart she just knew that she had to do that with him.”
In their engagement interview, Harry shared, “I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars. Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other.”
The two seemed truly happy during their trip. In another part of the docuseries, Prince Harry compared Meghan to his late mother, Princess Diana.
“It just felt so right, and it felt so normal,” Harry says in Harry & Meghan of spending time in Botswana with Meghan.
“That was when it just hit me, like, ‘Okay, this girl, this woman is amazing, is everything I’ve been looking for, and she’s so comfortable and so relaxed in my company.'”
A year later, Prince Harry would propose to Meghan with a diamond sourced from Botswana.
Meghan snapped a photo of a drink in a cut-off water bottle. Another photo seemingly taken by Meghan, of polaroids of the two of them during their trip. Prince Harry is wearing a blue t-shirt that says “BRUCE LEE,” the famous actor and martial artist.
The two jump for joy. A year later, they would return to Botswana for a longer trip to celebrate Meghan’s 36th birthday.
“We could both just be completely ourselves,” Meghan shares in Harry & Meghan.
“There’s no distraction. There’s no cellphone reception. There’s no mirror. There’s no bathroom. There was no, ‘How do I look?’ Thankfully, we really liked each other.”
Though they were awkward at first, the two reveal, because it was the first time they had seen each other in person in a month. But they quickly warmed up to each other and held hands in the Land Cruiser.
“I have this sense of complete relaxation and normality [here],” Prince Harry told Town & Country in 2017.”To lose myself in the bush…. This is where I feel more like myself than anywhere else in the world. I wish I could spend more time here….”
And the rest was history…
For the original story: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/g42191250/prince-harry-meghan-markle-botswana-third-date-photos/
About the author: Emily Burack (she/her) is the news writer for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects.
