- Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are both married to princes and are now members of the British royal family, but their relationships with their spouses seem to be very different.
- Middleton met Prince William in college and they dated for years before they got married whereas Markle met Prince Harry on a blind date and they got engaged a year and a half later.
- Middleton and Markle welcomed had their first child at different points in their marriages.
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Although both women are members of the royal family and have a duchess title in their name, Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton's relationships with their respective prince spouses are quite different.
Here are some ways Markle and Prince Harry's relationship differs from Middleton and Prince William's.
The couples met in totally different ways.
Markle and Prince Harry were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend.
On the other hand, Middleton and Prince William met while attending college together at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. And the first time they met was apparently a bit awkward.
"I actually went bright red when I met you and scuttled off feeling very shy about meeting you," Middleton told Prince William during the couple's post-engagement interview with ITV in 2010.
Prince William and Kate began dating in their 20s and Prince Harry and Markle began dating in their 30s.
Since Prince William and Middleton met in college they knew each other during parts of their teenage years. Reportedly, the two began dating when they were both around 22 years old.
On the other hand, Markle and Prince Harry began dating around 2016, when Markle was just about to turn 35 years old and Prince Harry was 31 years old.
Middleton and Prince William were friends before they started dating.
Although Markle and Prince Harry first met on a blind date, Middleton and Prince William were just friends for over a year before they became a couple.
Markle had been married before she met Prince Harry.
Markle met Prince Harry over a decade after Middleton first met Prince William and during three of those 15 years, Markle had been married to someone else.
From 2011 to 2013, Markle was married to producer Trevor Engelson, making her one of the first divorcées to marry into the British royal family.
Prince William and Middleton briefly broke up before they got engaged.
Middleton and William's lengthy dating timeline included a brief split. Before getting engaged in 2010, the pair broke up for a few months in the spring of 2007.
In their first post-engagement interview, Prince William told ITV News, " ... We were growing up so it was just a bit of space and it seemed to have worked out for the better."
"At the time I wasn't very happy about it, but it actually made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realized. I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger and I really valued that time for me as well although I didn't think it at the time," Middleton said in that same interview.
Both couple's engagement timelines differ quite a bit.
Markle and Prince Harry began seeing each other in July 2016. The pair announced their engagement a year and a half later in November 2017.
Middleton and Prince William had a much longer dating timeline. According to The Telegraph, they began dating around late 2003 or early 2004 and got engaged in 2010, about seven years later.
One couple's proposal happened at home and the other's occurred during an international vacation.
Prince William said he planned his proposal to Middleton for quite some time and "it went really, really well." He popped the question while the duo was on vacation in Kenya with friends. He also proposed using Princess Diana's engagement ring.
On the other hand, Prince Harry proposed to Markle while the two were at home cooking a roast chicken.
"It happened ... here at our cottage, just a standard typical night for us," Prince Harry told the BBC during a post-engagement interview.
"[We were] trying to roast a chicken and it just — just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee," added Markle.
Unlike Middleton, Markle was allowed to attend the royal family's Christmas celebration before she was officially married to a prince.
Prince Middleton may have dated Prince William for nearly a decade but, according to The Telegraph, she didn't celebrate Christmas with the royal family until 2011, the year she and the duke got married.
Per Today, traditionally, only those part of or married to someone in the royal family are allowed to attend this holiday celebration. But it seems Queen Elizabeth gave Prince Harry permission to bring Markle — she attended even though she and the duke were only engaged.
Middleton and Markle welcomed their first child at different points in their marriages.
Middleton and Prince William got married in April 2011. A year and a half later, in December 2012, it was announced that Middleton was pregnant with their first child. On July 22, 2013, their first child, Prince George Alexander Louis, was born.
By contrast, Markle and Harry got married in May 2018 and a few months later, in October, it was announced that they were expecting their first child. On May 6, 2019, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born.
The couples publicly show affection in different ways and in varying amounts.
Middleton and Prince William seem to be a fairly private couple and they rarely show affection in public.
It's uncommon for them to even hold hands when they're out and about. Of course, it could be that they're trying to remain professional as they work as representatives of the royal family.
On the other hand, Markle and Prince Harry have frequently been spotted holding hands, rubbing each other's backs, and kissing in public.