Britain's Prince Harry has a signature move when it comes to wooing women, a biographer has revealed. Photo / AP
Britain's Prince Harry has a signature move when it comes to wooing women, a biographer has revealed. Photo / AP
Prince Harry's signature romantic gesture appears to have been revealed in a new biography about his bride-to-be Meghan Markle.
Speaking in London, British journalist and biographer Andrew Morton, who has written new book Meghan, A Hollywood Princess, described the pair as a "genuine love match" and said their romantic fate was sealed when she agreed within 24 hours to accompany him on a trip to Botswana.
"It makes me smile inwardly to think what they thought at Buckingham Palace because they would have raised their eyebrows thinking, 'This is the fourth girl in seven visits who he's taken on safari,' and I have to say there is something about Africa that draws people in to romance," he said.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during an official photocall to announce the engagement of Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle at The Sunken Gardens. Photo / AP
"He's absolutely crazy about Meghan. We've got a young man who is very much in love, a spring in his step and a smile on his face and everybody wishes him the very best."
Morton said Africa is a favourite destination for holidaying royals, whether it's for romantic liaisons or emotional repair. Prince Harry first visited the continent in 1997 with his father, two months after his mother's funeral. On that trip he met with Nelson Mandela and the Spice Girls during a five-day visit to South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.
He has since returned to Lesotho as part of a gap year and established the Sentebale charity for children suffering from HIV, which has extended into Botswana.
"Alongside his charity work for Sentebale and official duties, Harry made Africa his favourite holiday destination — especially when trying to impress a girlfriend," the book claims.
"Before Meghan, he had taken TV sports presenter Natalie Pinkham, Zimbabwean-born Chelsy Davy, and actor Cressida Bonas on safari. Botswana was the preferred destination.
"As his biographer Penny Junor observed: 'Africa is the one place on Earth where Prince Harry can be truly himself. He describes Botswana as his second home ... He is not a prince under African skies. He is just Harry.'"
Meghan Markle's engagement ring contains diamonds from Botswana where they sparked a romance. Photo / AP
Morton said the problem for Harry had previously been that the harsh spotlight led relationships to flounder once back in the UK.
"But despite the obstacles, it doesn't appear to have been too much of a hardship, the prince enjoying romances, confirmed or suspected, with a veritable galaxy of beautiful, successful women, among them actors Sienna Miller and Margot Robbie, TV presenter Poppy Jamie, Brazilian socialite Antonia Packard, and German model Anastasia Guseva," he writes.
However his latest trip in August 2017 proved different when Meghan joined him at the end of an official trip to Malawi and Botswana to focus on conservation efforts.
The couple entered a game reserve and Meghan's normally active social media accounts went dark for seven days, with Harry "well able to impress" with knowledge of the bush, people and flora and fauna.
"After all, what is there not to love about a man who spends his holidays saving elephants and rhinos?" Morton writes.
While Meghan had previously visited Rwanda with World Vision, swimming in rockpools and relaxing with royalty under the stars appeared to have sealed the deal.
"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 energy and whatever it took to make that happen," she later said.
Writer Andrew Morton. Photo / Getty Images
The couple then had to confront the enormity of their situation with Meghan asking herself if she was in love with the man or the position, and if she loved the man could she cope with the position?
"For his part, Harry had fallen for a (slightly) older, bi-racial divorcee from California. He didn't need any reminding of the chaos and bitterness caused by the last American to marry a member of the royal family. When King Edward VIII fell for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced woman from Baltimore, he abdicated the throne rather than give her up," the book notes.
The couple eventually agreed to make it work, flying to see each other every two weeks with Meghan all but moving into Nottingham Cottage inside Kensington Palace.
"I don't think that I would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship," Meghan later told the BBC when they announced their engagement. "Obviously there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing."
