Meghan says engagement announcement was ‘orchestrated reality show’

The Duchess of Sussex has described the moment she and Prince Harry announced their engagement in 2017 as an “orchestrated reality show”.

Her comments came in episode two of the hotly anticipated new six-part Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the first three episodes of which were released on Thursday.

Recalling the moment the couple formally announced their engagement to the world, Meghan says: “It was, you know, rehearsed.”

The couple appeared in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, on November 27, 2017, where they posed for press photographers.

Harry wore a blue suit and Meghan a white coat and her new engagement ring, as they smiled broadly and waved for the cameras, in images that were to be splashed on papers and news websites across the world.

Right after the photos were taken, the couple went indoors where they were interviewed by BBC broadcast journalist Mishal Husain.

Meghan described it as an “orchestrated reality show”, adding: “So we did the thing out with the press, then we went right inside, took the coat off, sat down and did the interview. So it was all in that same moment.”

In a clip from the BBC interview played in the Netflix documentary, Harry and Meghan can be seen smiling and laughing shyly together as they sit on a sofa.

Ms Husain begins the interview by congratulating them on their engagement and asking when and how the proposal happened.

Meghan looks to Harry, who says: “It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage.”

In the BBC interview, Meghan goes on to explain they had been having a “cosy” night in roasting a chicken, and said the moment Harry went down on one knee was “an amazing surprise...so sweet and natural and very romantic”.

For a full wrap of all that has emerged in the series so far, click here.