After months of waiting for the highly anticipated Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Netflix documentary, the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan hit the streaming giant on Dec. 8. And with the first part of the docu-series comes revelations about the couple's love story and adolescence, as well as their initial experience with the royal family, of course.
The husband-and-wife duo spoke about how they met and their first date, and Harry recalled things about his childhood and late mother, Princess Diana. The duchess also recounted her initial impression of England, including the relentless tabloids and overarching racism.
Volume II of the six-episode special will conclude next Thursday, Dec. 15, on Netflix. Read on for all the biggest revelations we learned in Volume 1 of Harry & Meghan.
Meghan and Harry Met on Instagram
Harry first came across Meghan in a video posted to a mutual friend's Instagram. The actress was goofing around wearing a dog-ear filter, but nonetheless, Harry was in awe. “I was like, who is that?” the prince remembered. The third party eventually introduced the two and they followed each other on the 'Gram (celebs — they're just like us!).
The second most important realization from this moment, though, is that Harry did not deny that this means he has (or had at the time) a private Instagram account. And the documentary even gave viewers a glimpse at his page.
Harry Was Late to Their First Date
Harry almost ruined his shot with the actress when he was tardy to their first date at Soho House in London thanks to traffic. “I was panicking, I was freaking out, I was like sweating," Harry reveals. Markle then shared her thought process in that moment adding, "I didn't know him, so I was like 'Oh, is this what he does? Got it. This I'm not doing.'"
But when Harry arrived 30 minutes late he apologized profusely. "He was so sweet," Meghan remembered. "You were genuinely so embarrassed and late."
The Royal Family Didn't Approve of Meghan's Acting Career
The family's first impression of Meghan had to do with Hollywood stereotypes. “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funny enough,” Meghan said. At the time, she was starring in Suits. “There was a big idea of what that looks like from the U.K. standpoint, Hollywood, and it was just very easy for them to typecast that.”
According to Prince Harry, his family's attitude towards his new girlfriend was, “Oh, she’s an American actress, [that relationship] won’t last.”
“The fact that I was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgment more than anything else in the beginning," Harry added.
And after the pair started dating, things began getting hectic at Meghan's workplace. Suits executive producer Silver Tree said papparazzi would try to buy the cast's call sheets and break onto set to get photos of Meghan on set, which prompted NBC to amp up security.
Harry Knew Meghan Was "The One" Pretty Early in Their Relationship
A friend of Harry's recounted the first time the prince told him about Meghan. “Guys, I met a girl,” the pal remembered Harry saying. “We just met, but I think she’s the one."
The two kept their relationship a secret (a "guarded treasure," as Meghan called it) at the beginning. They were long distance at the time, so the majority of their communication happened over text and FaceTime.
“Everything was text and FaceTime. We’d talk for hours. It felt exciting but not in the way people would assume it would be,” she said. “It was just relaxed and easy.”
Harry Gets His Personality from Princess Diana
Although Harry doesn't have “many early memories” of his mother (“It was almost like internally I blocked them out"), he does remember her personality. “I always remember her cheeky laugh,” he said adding a piece of advice she gave him. “‘If you get in trouble, don’t get caught.’ I’ll always be that cheeky person inside.”
He added, “My mum made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart and I am my mothers’s son."
And Harry sweetly remarked that Meghan also reminds him of his mother. “She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence," he said. "She has this warmth about her,”
Meghan's Mother, Doria Ragland, Broke Her Silence
“The last five years has been challenging,” she said to the series's director, Liz Garbus. When Doria first met Harry, she noticed how happy he made her daughter. “He was like a 6'1", handsome man with red hair, really great manners,” she says. “He was just really nice. And they looked really happy together. Like he was the one.”
She added that she was shocked by the abhorrent behavior of Meghan's father Thomas Markle. “I was absolutely stunned that Tom would become part of this circus," she said. "That he would capitalize … certainly as a parent, that’s not what you do. That’s not parenting.”
Meghan Wore Ripped Jeans the First Time She Met Kate Middleton and Prince William
Meghan recalled meeting Harry's family for the first time, and like any relationship, it felt awkward at first — then add the whole royal thing to raise the stakes.
Markle had to curtsy the first time she met Harry's grandma Queen Elizabeth II, (something she spoke about in the couple's Oprah interview), and she remembered meeting Prince William and Kate Middleton. Meghan wore ripped jeans and no shoes to meet her future brother- and sister-in-law at Harry's Kensington Palace home. “I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger,” she said. “I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
She implied that Harry's family wasn't immediately receptive to welcoming her into the family. “The formality on the outside carried through on the inside.” So, Meghan did her best to fit in with the family, eliminating colors from her wardrobe for white and beige clothing. “There’s no version of me joining this family and trying to not do everything I could to fit in,” she said. “I don’t want to embarrass the family.”