for fifi v e - ' five and seven. for wednesday and thursday, whether looking similar, ecole stuck to the day, foster's melbourne plenty of sunshine and land and showers down the irish sea copying west wales, asked of cornwall and devon but as the aid gets colder, temperatures and —— area gets colder, snow any showers and getting down to low levels, feeling colder later this week. prince harry and his american girlfriend meghan markle are engaged — there'll be a royal wedding in the spring. the couple appeared together here at kensington palace this afternoon. they revealed they got engaged in secret earlier this month. the queen and duke of edinburgh said they were delighted. this afternoon, they were delighted. this afternoon, they gave an interview to the bbc‘s michelle hussein. harry spoke of

being beautifully surprised as he got to know meghan markle and the couple confirmed they had first met ona couple confirmed they had first met on a blind date that had been set up bya on a blind date that had been set up by a friend of theirs. she said that since then they had never sent more than a few weeks apart and that they simply enjoys being together. for the next 20 minutes, were going to be showing you that extended interview starting with the couple's thoughts on the moment that prince harry proposed. it happened a few month ‘s quick weeks ago. the standard, typical night for us. a typical night. what we do? trying to roast a chicken. and just an amazing surprise. it was so and just an amazing surprise. it was so sleet and natural and very romantic. he got on one knee. was it an instant romantic. he got on one knee. was it a n insta nt yes romantic. he got on one knee. was it an instant yes you? yes, as a matter of fact, i could barely let him finish is proposing. can i say yes now? there was hugs and i had the

ring on herfinger now? there was hugs and i had the ring on her finger and now? there was hugs and i had the ring on herfinger and i asked, can i give you the ring? and she was like, all coming yes, the ring! i think i managed to catch her by surprise as well. this is how long a you first met? a year and a half? it's been quite a whirlwind, is that how it felt to you? i don't think i would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship. there have been layers compared to how it has been... added five, six months or so with privacy was amazing. i think we we re with privacy was amazing. i think we were able to have so much time to connect and we never went more than two we e ks connect and we never went more than two weeks without seeing each other even though we were doing a long—distance relationship. we needed were? how did you first meet? we were introduced by a mutual friend who... we should protect her

privacy. but it was through her and then we met once or twice in london lastjuly. beginning ofjuly. and thenit lastjuly. beginning ofjuly. and then it was, i think, about three, maybe four days later that i managed to persuade her to come and join me in botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars, we spent five days out there which was fantastic and we were really by ourselves. it was crucial for me to make sure we had a chance to get to know each other. was the friend who introduced you trying to set you up? yes, definitely. it was a blind date. it's so interesting because we talk about it now. in the states, you don't have the same understanding as the royal family

and while i know and understand it very clearly because there's incredible interest there, i didn't know much about him and so the only thing i asked her where she wanted to set us up, i had one question, is he nice? because if he wasn't kind, it didn't seem like it would make sense, so we went and met for a drink, and i think very quickly into that, we said, what are we doing tomorrow? we should meet again. what are you doing tomorrow, let's meet again? and then it was like, right, diaries, we need to get the diaries out and find out how we are going to make this work, because i was off to africa for a month, she was working, and we just said, right, where's the gap? and the gap happened to be in the perfect place, so... so how much did you, prince harry, know about meghan? had you seen her on tv? no. friend said meghan markle. i was like, right, 0k, give me a bit of background, like, what's going on here? so i'd never watched suits, i'd never heard of meghan before, and i was beautifully surprised when i walked into that room and saw her, and there

she was sitting there. i was like, ok, i'm going to have to really up my game here. sit down and make sure i've got good chat. i think for both of us it was really refreshing, because, given that i didn't know a lot about him, everything that i've learned about him, i learned through him, as opposed to having grown up around different news stories or tabloids or whatever else. everything i learned about him and his family was what he would share with me, and vice versa, so for both of us it was just a really authentic and organic way to get to know each other. was that quite refreshing for you in the way that you'd been brought up, with a lot of people knowing a lot about you? 0r thinking they know. exactly. it was hugely refreshing, to be able to get to know someone who isn't necessarily within your circle, doesn't know much about me. i don't know much about her, so to be able to start almost afresh, right from the beginning, and getting to know each other step—by—step, and then taking that huge leap of only two dates and then going effectively on holiday together in the middle of nowhere,

and sharing a tent together and all that kind of stuff, it was fantastic. it was absolutely amazing to get to know her as quickly as i did. and starting a long—distance relationship. you were working on suits. you had, i imagine, a packed filming schedule. you've got lots of commitments of your own. how hard was it to keep things going? it was just a choice, right? i think that, very early on, when we realised we were going to commit to each other, we knew we had to invest the time and the energy and whatever it took to make that happen. so, yes, with the filming schedule, it was not the easiest, because of course it included a lot of travel back and forth, but... i don't think you had any idea what time zone you've been on for the last year and a half. no, no. coming over here for days or weeks, and going back and straight into filming the next day, 4am wake up calls on a monday, straight into set. right off the plane straight to set,

just coming back... and just trying to stay as close as possible, but on two different time zones, and five hours apart, does have its challenges, but we made it work, and now we're here, so... we're thrilled. in the case of your relationship, unlike for most people, there's this whole layer of what it means to get involved with someone from the royal family. how much of a sense did you have, meghan, of the enormity of what you were getting into and what it might mean for your life? i think i can very safely say, as naive as it sounds now, having gone through this learning curve in the past year and a half, i did not have any understanding ofjust what it would be like. i don't think either of us did. we've both said that. even though we knew that it would be... i tried to warn you as much as possible, but i think both of us were totally surprised by the reaction after the first five or six months that we had to ourselves of what would actually happen from then, so you can have as many conversations as you want and try and prepare as much as possible, but we were totally

unprepared for what happened after that. the scrutiny. well, all sorts. i think also because... it's a misconception that, because i worked in the entertainment industry, that this would be something i would be familiar with. even though i'd been on my show for six years at that point, and working before that, i've never been part of tabloid culture, never been in pop culture to that degree, and lived a relatively quiet life, even though i focused so much on myjob, so that was a really stark difference out of the gate, but... and i think we were just hit so hard at the beginning with a lot of mistruths that i made the choice to not read anything. positive or negative, itjust didn't make sense. instead, we focused all of our energiesjust on nurturing our relationship. 0n us, yeah. 0n us. and some of that scrutiny — and you ended up making a very public statement about it —

some of that scrutiny was centred around your ethnicity, meghan. when you realised that, what did you think? of course it's disheartening, you know. it's a shame that that is the climate, in this world, to focus on that, or be discriminatory in that sense. but i think, at the end of the day, i'm reallyjust proud of who i am and where i come from, and we have never put any focus on that. we've just focused on who we are as a couple, and so, when you take all those extra layers away, and all of that noise, i think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together, and tune all the rest of that out. now that it is all official, prince harry, do you have that sense that the combination of the two of you and your different backgrounds, that you together represent something new for the royal family? i don't know if it's something new. for me, it's an added member of the family. it's another team player as part of the bigger team. for all of us, all we want to do is be able to carry out

the right engagements, carry out our work, and try and encourage others and the younger generation to be able to see the world in the correct sense, rather than perhaps being a distorted view. so, you know, the fact that i fell in love with meghan so incredibly quickly was sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect. there was this beautiful woman who had literally tripped and fell into my life. i fell into her life. and the fact that she... i know the fact that she'll be really unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me, because she will be able to deal with everything else that comes will there be showing will there be the entire interview as it with it, but we are a fantastic team. we know we are. we hope to, over time, try and have as much impact for all the things we care about as much as possible. i'm very excited about that.

and, meghan, given youracting and the profiles you'd had, you'd already been involved in various causes. you'd been an ambassador for the un. what about this new role? you're going to have a bigger platform, a bigger voice. what do you want to do with that? imean... sing! can you imagine? no. a singer. i think what's been really exciting as we talk about the transition of this out of my career but into the role, is that, as you said, the causes that have been really important to me, i can focus more energy on, because very early out of the gate, i think you realise once you have access, or a voice that people are going to listen to, with that comes a lot of responsibility, which i take seriously. and at the same time i think, in these beginnings a few months, and now being boots on the ground in the uk, i'm excited tojust really get to know more about the different communities here, smaller organisations who are working on the same causes that i've always been passionate about under the same umbrella, and also being able to go round to the commonwealth. i think it'sjust

the beginning of... there's a lot to do! there's a lot to do. and it's an immense change. you're getting a new country out of it. a husband, obviously. that sounds nice. it does. but also giving up your career. yes. but i don't see it as giving anything up. i see it as a change. it's a new challenge. it's a new chapter, right? and also, keep in mind i've been working on my show for seven years, so we were very, very fortunate to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series, and for me, once we hit the 100 episode marker, i thought, you know what? i have ticked this box and i feel really proud of the work i've done there, and now it's time to, as i said, work as a team with you. do you have that sense of responsibility, prince harry, for what you are asking meghan to do? of course. that sense of responsibility was essentially from day one, or maybe a couple of months in, when i realise that

actually this is... you know, i know that i'm in love with this girl, and i hope that she in with me, but we still had to sit down on the sofa, and i still had to have some pretty frank conversations with her to say, you know, what you're letting yourself in for, it is a big deal. and it's not, it's not easy for anybody. but i know that, at the end of the day, she chooses me, and i choose her, and therefore whatever we have to tackle together, or individually, it will always be us together as a team, so i think she's capable... that's so nicely said, isn't it? she's capable of anything, and together, as i said, there's a hell of a of stuff and work that needs doing. at the moment, for us, it's going to be making sure that our relationship is always put first, but both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change for good, and with lots of young people

running around the commonwealth, that's where we're going to spend most of our time. and it was really one of the first things we connected on. it was one of the first things we started talking about when we met, was just the different things that we wanted to do in the world, and how passionate we were about seeing change. that's what got date two! plenty to talk about. children? not currently, no. of course, you know, one step at a time, and hopefully we'll start a family in the near future. you've met each other‘s families, i imagine? yes, his family has been so welcoming, and... you've met quite a few of them, actually. i have, on both sides. his mom's side as well, which has been really important to me too. but, yes, the family has been great, and over the past year and a half, we've just had a really nice time getting to know them, and progressively helping me feel a part of notjust the institution but also part of the family, which has been really special. trying to track them down and make

sure that they are around at the same time that she's popping in without telling too many people. we've actually done incredibly well to make sure that you've met all the key people. a lot of the time that you've been together in this last year and a half, you've been at home a lot. yes. we had to sort of reverse the whole process, and cosy nights in an front of the television, cooking dinner withjust the two of us by ourselves and our cottage, rather than going out for dinner and being seen in public, so we've reverse the whole process, which is... it has provided different opportunities, and it's made us a hell of a lot closer in a short space of time, without question, so if anybody else... maybe slow down on the dates, and spend more time at home. for us, it's an opportunity to really get to know each other without other people looking or trying to take photos on their phone and stuff.

that comes with the job, comes with the role, but, where possible... and we were able to really get to know each other that way, but also then to go and have friends over for dinner, or go to his family for tea, or any of those sort of things. just to take the time to be able to go on longer country walks, and just talk. we've been all over the place. have you met the queen? i have, yes. a couple of times. what was that like? it's incredible. i think, to be able to meet her through his lens, notjust with his honour and respect for her as the monarch, but the love that he has for her as his grandmother, all of those layers have been so important for me, so that when i met her i had a deep understanding, and of course incredible respect for being able to have that time with her. she's an incredible woman. and the corgis took to you straightaway. i've spent the last

33 years being barked at, and this woman walks in, and absolutely nothing. just laying on my feet during tea. wagging tails... i wasjust like, oh. that has to be a good sign. speaking of dogs, have you brought yours to the uk? well, i have two dogs that i've had for quite a long time, my rescue pups, and one is now staying with very close friends, and my other little guy, yes, he's in the uk. he's been here for a while. 0k. let's hope he adjusts well. yeah, i think he's doing just fine. what was it like introducing meghan to your father and your brother? um... what was it like? it was exciting. i mean, i'd been seeing herfor a period of time when i literally didn't tell anybody at all, and then william was longing to meet her, and so was catherine, and being our neighbours, we managed to get that in quite a few times now, and catherine's been absolutely amazing. she's been wonderful. as has william as well. they've been fantastic support. and then my father as well,

we've had a couple... no, more than that. a handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings over at his place as well, so the family together have been absolutely solid support, and my grandparents as well have been wonderful throughout this whole process, and have known for quite some time, so how they haven't told anybody is, again, a miracle in itself. the whole family have come together and have been a huge amount of support. they've been amazing. and, meghan, your parents? do you think, you know, while very happy for you, obviously, are they worried at all about the scale of what you're getting into? i'm sure in the onset, both my parents and my close friends were concerned, because we got very quickly swept up in a media storm that was not part of my life before that. but they also had never seen me so happy, and i think also once my friends were able to really meet harry, and my mom, who we spend a lot of time with,

who is so much fun. your mum's amazing. being put through, that it was just temporary, and that we were going to be able to get through that, so everyone was really happy. he's talked to my dad a few times. he hasn't been able to meet him just yet, but it's all been worth every effort. and your ring? tell us about your ring. the ring is obviously yellow gold, because that's herfavourite, and the main stone itself i sourced from botswana, and the little diamonds either side are from my mother's jewellery collection, to make sure that she is with us on this crazyjourney together. it's beautiful. and he designed it. it's incredible. yeah.

make sure it stays on that finger! of course. what does it mean to you, meghan, to have those stones on your finger that once belonged to princess diana? i think everything about harry's thoughtfulness and the inclusion of that, and obviously not being able to meet his mom, it's so important to me to know that she's a part of this with us, and i think in being able to meet his aunts, and also people like julia, and just different people who were so important to his mom, and able to in some way know part of her through them, and of course through him. it's incredibly special to be able to have this, which sort of links where you come from, and botswana, which is important to us. it's perfect. what do you think your mother would have thought of meghan, or said about meghan? they'd be thick as thieves, without question. i mean, she would be over the moon, jumping up and down,

so excited for me, but then, would probably have been best friends with meghan, so it is days like today when i really but with the ring and everything else that's going on, i'm sure she's with us, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else. prince harry, meghan markle, thank you both very much. thank you so much. thank you. a21 a 21 minute interview conducted by my colleague. they recovered quite a few of the issues around this engagement that has been announced today, not just the engagement that has been announced today, notjust the way engagement that has been announced today, not just the way that the engagement came about and the way that prince harry actually propose. then some very serious talking about meghan markle's role. she is a very

energetic campaigner for gender equality and other humanitarian issues and she made no secret of the fa ct issues and she made no secret of the fact that she sees this role as an addition to the sort of rules that she has undertaken before. that was one of the clear statement that prince harry and one of the phrases he said there, that the stars were aligned for them to come together. they started the relationship having met on what i suppose we would call a blind date really which was arranged by a mutualfriend. some thoughts there are about the way the relationship has developed and, indeed, the kind of burden that meghan markle will have to take on. prince harry was referencing openly that he had to think very carefully about explaining the kind of life that this will entail, the kind of visibility, the kind of public profile and, of course, the huge pressure, the immense pressure that comes with that and he knows all about that but he is now asking

meghan markle to show that burden with him, so all of that and the contribution made their in that extended interview. just a thought there about meghan markle and the character that she portrays there, the character that she has portrayed on television because she is an actress, but the character that represents what she is all about which is really being a very serious, very earnest campaigner for some very important issues. a combination of things, television celebrity and respected campaigner and is now also going to be prince harry's wife and no doubt a very prominent member now of the royal family. our role correspondence has been assessing these facets to meghan‘s character. she has been in the united states to try to put together a portrayal for us and the united states to try to put together a portrayalfor us and it is. have you heard? there is breaking news out of london this morning. drum roll, please. prince harry and american actress meghan markle are engaged — yay! congratulations, harry and meghan. we don't know you, but congratulations! but we will all get to know meghan markle much better

over the next few months. she is no ordinary royal fiancee. her early acting career was made up of small television and film parts and adverts. there was also a stint opening the boxes on the tv programme deal or no deal. wow, you're pretty. good, you've hit on me. we can get it out of the way that i am not interested. no, i'm sorry... before her big break in the legal drama suits. but she sometimes took issue with the way her character, rachel zane, was portrayed. this season, every script seemed to begin with "rachel enters wearing a towel." and i said, "nope, not doing it any more." not doing it, and i called the creator and i was like, "it's just gratuitous." we get it, you've already seen it once, so i think that at a certain point, you feel empowered enough to just say no. meghan markle will bring something different to the british royalfamily. born and brought up here

in united states, she is a proud american but she's also a campaigner with strong opinions and, if possible, she won't want her marriage to limit that side her life. her humanitarian work has taken her around the world, here in rwanda. she's focused on gender equality. particularly as an advocate for united nations women. usually hands on being part of this, being here for everyone. it's really nice. on being part of this, being here for everyone. it's really nicelj think her passion for other people and wanting to create social change is something that is, again, with that level of platform could only be a positive thing so she'll be fine. she will be great, in fact! meghan markle grew up in this affluent neighbourhood of los angeles. she went to a private catholic school.

she is mixed race, the daughter of divorced parents. her mother, a yoga teacher. her father, divorced parents. her mother, a yoga teacher. herfather, a tv and divorced parents. her mother, a yoga teacher. her father, a tv and film lighting director. but in the early days of her relationship with prince harry, some of the media coverage and set up a couple. prince harry even issued a statement describing it as having racial undertones. even issued a statement describing it as having racial undertonesm definitely felt very coded and very racist to me and very much like there was an attempt to make her seem there was an attempt to make her seem like an other, like an outsider. so, yeah, that was pretty startling. this will be a whole new world for meghan markle, swapping the small screen for a far bigger stage. it portrays there of meghan markle. let's go live to kensington palace. that interview was very interesting on several counts, wasn't it? not least in terms of the kind of way that meghan markle wants to fulfil this new role. what did you make of

it? yes, i did, really interesting. particularly the way they both co nsta ntly particularly the way they both constantly use the phrase "a team." what agave immediately was the sense that they have a very clear vision of how they want to move forward together, work together and make change. they really could be alongside the duke and duchess of cambridge a real humanitarian powerhouse, i suppose in terms of the way they can work together. they talked about how those shared interest in terms of charity work and humanitarian issues for what brought them together in the first place. they chatted about it on their first couple of dates and clearly now, at this stage, as they move towards getting married, it is still very important part of their relationship and it is clearly something they feel they can work on together now as they become a married couple and as meghan markle joins the royal family. they were remarkably candid and pretty informal in the way they discussed how the relationship has come about, how the relationship has come about, how they met initially. it was very endearing the way they tackled those questions. they were incredibly at

ease, weren't they? seeing them together, the way they related to one another, looked at one another, finished each other‘s sentences i suppose and picked up from the other person was saying. i have to say, seeing it, i felt person was saying. i have to say, seeing it, ifelt you could easily ta ke seeing it, ifelt you could easily take your eyes off meghan markle because she is so new. we hadn't really heard her in that context of a big interview before and it was really interesting to see the kind of things she said, how she phrase things she was very confident, she had that sort of american air of confidence about her. articulate, very able to speak about how she was feeling about things and what she thought about stuff and that was very obvious as an americanism, for wa nt of very obvious as an americanism, for want of a better phrase. they were incredibly at ease with one another, they felt very sure, clearly, of how they felt very sure, clearly, of how they felt very sure, clearly, of how they felt for one another what they wa nted they felt for one another what they wanted to happen going forward and they appeared very happy and very much in love. very good to talk to you and we will talk again later on i have no doubt. by the way, that

full interview will be shown again here on the bbc news channel at 830 this evening. 8:30pm this evening, the full interview will be shown once again for you here on the bbc news channel and, of course, for more coverage and analysis on the wall engagement and the day's other news too, you can go to the bbc news website, and then you will see all the links there, notjust to the engagement story but the day's other stories as well. just have a look at the website for of that. the time is 29 minutes past six and we are going to catch up with the weather now with chris. we'll continue to see blustery showers across the north west of the country as we go through the rest of the day and overnight tonight as well. snow in the showers over their higher ground in scotland where things could be icy for a time but marginally their wind keeping temperatures above freezing for many of us. it will still feel pretty chilly overnight. looking at the

weather this week, we have a big ridge of high pressure which is stopping mild atlantic winds from reaching our shores and instead we get these mild mystic back cold northerly winds. the wind will get progressively colder day by day this week. temperature is a long way below average which is 8 degrees, but on thursday, the mystic knight three degrees so—called weak for all of us. plenty of sunshine around on thursday after a cold start to the day. plenty of sunshine across north—western areas, snow in the hills of scotland and we will see an increasing number of showers as well priest in courts of england and scotla nd priest in courts of england and scotland too. that is the weather. ina in a motorcar and this evening but now