Timeline of Harry and Meghan’s relationship

Here is a timeline of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s relationship:

July 2016 – The pair meet in London through friends and become an item.

October 30 2016 – News breaks that Prince Harry is dating star of US legal drama Suits, Meghan Markle.

November 8 2016 – Protective Harry attacks the media over its “abuse and harassment” of his girlfriend.

December 13 2016 – Harry and Meghan are spotted buying a Christmas tree together in Battersea Park.

January 6 2017 – Harry whisks Meghan off on a romantic break to see the Northern Lights in Norway.

February 2 2017 – The pair are spotted holding hands on a date night in London amid claims Meghan has “virtually moved in” with Harry at Kensington Palace.

March 4 2017 – They attend the wedding of one of Harry’s best friends Tom Inskip in Jamaica, sparking more predictions Harry is about to propose.

April 7 2017 – Meghan announces she is ending her lifestyle blog thetig.com which is taken as a sign she is preparing for life as a royal.

May 7 2017 – They are photographed kissing in public for the first time at Cowarth Park polo club in Ascot, Berkshire.

May 20 2017 – Meghan joins Harry at Pippa Middleton’s wedding reception but stays away from the church service.

September 5 2017 – The actress graces the cover of US magazine Vanity Fair and speaks openly about Harry for the first time, revealing: “We’re two people who are really happy and in love.”

September 24 2017 – Meghan makes her first appearance at an official engagement attended by Harry when she attends the Invictus Games opening ceremony in Toronto, Canada – although the pair sit about 18 seats apart.

September 25 2017 – Hand in hand and beaming with delight, Harry and Meghan make their first official public appearance together at Invictus’s wheelchair tennis.

September 30 2017 – The prince is seen kissing his girlfriend on the lips inside a darkened VIP box at the Invictus closing ceremony.

The pair were joined by Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

October 19 2017 – It emerges that Harry has taken the Suits star to meet his grandmother the Queen, whose permission they need to marry.

November 21 2017 – Meghan is spotted in London, getting a facial – prompting speculation she is preparing for an engagement announcement.

November 27 2017 – Clarence House announces the engagement.

Harry and Meghan pose for pictures at Kensington Palace, and record a television interview.

They reveal how Harry proposed over a roast chicken during a cosy night in.

November 28 2017 – The wedding venue – St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle – is confirmed. Aides reveal Meghan intends to become a British citizen and will be baptised and confirmed ahead of the ceremony.

December 1 2017 – Harry and Meghan carry out their first joint engagement in Nottingham as the actress takes to the royal role with ease.

December 15 2017 – The wedding date is announced as May 19 2018.

December 20 2017 – Meghan joins Harry at the Queen’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace.

December 21 2017 – The couple’s romantic engagement photos by celebrity photographer Alexi Lubomirski are released.

December 25 2017 – Meghan celebrates Christmas with the royals, joining them at church in Sandringham on Christmas Day – a first for a royal fiancee.

December 27 2017 – Harry guest-edits BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, and says Meghan had a fantastic Christmas with the royals, adding: “It’s the family I suppose that she’s never had.”

December 31 2017 – The couple fly to France to spend New Year together in the French Riviera.

January 9 2018 – The couple visit youth-orientated radio station Reprezent FM in Brixton, south London. Meghan shuts down her dormant social media accounts.

January 18 – On an away day to Cardiff, Harry and Meghan wow the crowds, visit Cardiff Castle, are given love spoons, and play Jenga in a community centre.

January 25 – Harry heads to Botswana on a solo private fact-finding mission to learn about the latest developments in wildlife conservation.

February 1 – Meghan attends her first official evening engagement with Harry at the Endeavour Fund awards.

February 13 – Meghan wears tartan for her first official visit to Scotland on a series of engagements with Harry in Edinburgh.

February 22 – Police investigate white powder and racist material sent to St James’s Palace.

February 28 – The couple take part in their first joint engagement with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Royal Foundation forum. Meghan shows her support for the #MeToo and Time’s Up Campaigns during an on-stage Q&A.

March 6 – Meghan is baptised and confirmed into the Anglican faith during a secret ceremony led by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Chapel Royal.

March 8 – Harry and Meghan carry out engagements in Birmingham on International Women’s Day.

March 12 – Meghan attends her first official engagement with the Queen when she joins senior royals at the Commonwealth Day service in Westminster Abbey. She sings the national anthem and tells schoolchildren she is “very very excited” about her wedding.

March 23 – On a trip to Belfast, Meghan jokes when shown baby products “I’m sure at some point we’ll need the whole (lot)”.

March 29 – Meghan reportedly heads back to the US to see her mother Doria for Easter and to talk wedding plans.

April 6 – Harry and Meghan meet Invictus hopefuls trying out for the UK team at Bath University.

April 11 – US ambassador Robert Wood Johnson describes the wedding as a symbol of the special relationship between Britain and America, and Harry launches the Walk of America expedition.

April 16 – Harry is made a Commonwealth Youth ambassador by the Queen and says Meghan is hugely excited to be working with him on his Commonwealth duties.

April 19 – Meghan supports LGBT issues saying it is about “human rights” as she attends a Youth Forum reception with Harry as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting

April 20 – The pair join Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at a Women’s Empowerment reception, in support of a pledge to offer the world’s poorest girls schooling.

April 23 – William and Kate’s baby son Prince Louis is born. Harry and Meghan attend a memorial service celebrating the life and legacy of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, 25 years after his death.

April 25 – Harry and Meghan attend a dawn service, and a ceremony in Westminster Abbey to mark Anzac Day.

May 14 – Meghan’s father Thomas Markle looks set to miss the wedding amid reports he staged photos for the paparazzi and suffered a heart attack. Meghan appeals for “understanding and respect” for her father.

May 17 – Meghan confirms her father will not be attending her wedding, saying he needs to focus on his health.

May 18 – Bride-to-be Meghan says she is feeling “wonderful” as she arrives with her mother Doria at Cliveden House Hotel the night before the wedding.

May 19 – Harry and Meghan marry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and become the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

May 22 – The newlyweds carry out their first official engagement as a married couple, attending a Buckingham Palace garden party in honour of the Prince of Wales’s patronages in his 70th birthday year.

June 9 – The Duchess of Sussex takes her place on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the first time during the Trooping the Colour celebrations.

June 11 – Kensington Palace announce that the duke and duchess will make an official visit to Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga and New Zealand in the autumn.

June 14 – Meghan undertakes her first joint engagement with the Queen on a day trip to Cheshire, and body language experts say the pair got on famously.

June 16 – The couple are guests at the wedding of Harry’s cousin Celia McCorquodale.

June 18 – Thomas Markle says he expects his daughter and Harry will try for children soon, and that Meghan has wanted a child for a long time.

June 19 – Harry and Meghan join the carriage procession and present a trophy at Royal Ascot, where winning jockey Frankie Dettori takes the chance to kiss the duchess on the hand.

June 26 – Harry and Meghan join the Queen at the Young Leaders awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

June 30 & July 1 – Meghan watches Harry play polo at Coworth Park, Ascot.

July 5 – The couple attend the Your Commonwealth Youth Challenge reception at Marlborough House in London with Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland QC.

July 9 – Meghan and Harry join the Cambridges for Prince Louis’s christening at the Chapel Royal.

July 10 – The royals mark the centenary of the RAF, attending a service at Westminster Abbey, a presentation of a new Queen’s Colour on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, and a flypast.

July 10-11 – The pair pay an official visit to Dublin, and carry out engagements at Croke Park and the Famine Memorial.

July 17 – The couple visit the Nelson Mandela centenary exhibition at the Southbank Centre in London.

July 26 – The duchess watches the duke play polo in the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club in Windsor, and the couple share a kiss at the trophy presentation.

August 4 – Meghan spends her 37th birthday at the wedding of Harry’s friend Charlie van Straubenzee.

August 16 – The pair holiday with George and Amal Clooney in Lake Como in Italy.

August 29 – Harry and Meghan watch a gala performance of the musical Hamilton, in support of Sentebale.

September 4 – The couple attend the annual WellChild Awards – a cause close to Harry’s heart. Meghan gives a rose to one of the winners Matilda Booth, and the seven-year-old makes Harry a ‘pinky promise’ that she will never stop smiling.

September 6 – The duke and duchess attend the 100 Days to Peace gala marking the centenary of the end of the First World War.

October 12 – Harry and Meghan return to St George’s Chapel for Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank just five months after they pledged their love for one another in the same Windsor Castle venue.

October 15 – The duke and duchess touch down in Australia ahead of their first royal tour as a married couple.

October 15 – The duke and duchess are “very pleased” that Meghan is expecting a baby in the spring of 2019, Kensington Palace announces.