We asked readers to share their reactions to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement. Here’s what some of you said

‘For the first time in my life, there will be someone I can relate to in the royal family’: Anna



I am delighted that Harry is marrying a mixed-race woman. For the first time in my life, there will be someone I can relate to in the royal family. I am not a royalist, but I am happy for this couple ... I was very happy this morning. Black people will get where I’m coming from. You only have to look at black Twitter to see!

Prince Harry 'thrilled' after announcing he is to marry Meghan Markle Read more

‘They are just regular people who put their pants on the same way I do’: Toma, 50, Florida

I really don’t care about their engagement, I am more concerned about my own life than wondering what others are doing that has no effect on me. I know nothing about either of them or either of their families. They are just two people who got engaged, no big deal. They are just regular people to me who put their pants on the same way I do.



‘I hope their union chips away at some of the latent prejudice in this country’: Rosa, mid-50s

I’m delighted. I’m a black woman married to a white man for more than 25 years. The mixed-race population in the UK is the fastest-growing ethnic group and it’s lovely to see couples like ourselves reflected in the royal family. No doubt closet racists will be upset, but Harry himself comes from mixed stock, so they’ll have to get over it. It’s been tough growing up as a black person in Britain – from racists shouting at us from their cars, to people making assumptions about your intelligence based on the colour of your skin. I hope they’ll be happy. I hope their union chips away at some of the latent prejudice in this country, where people bemoan “PC culture” because they’ve been deprived of the right to use racist language as they used to.

Play Video 1:12 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appear for first time as engaged couple – video

‘It is a sign of how far the UK has moved in our understanding of what it means to be British’: Leo, 43, Wales

Could you imagine, even 10 years ago, that a senior royal could get engaged to a divorced, mixed-race American, and there would be virtually no comment on that? It is a sign of how far the UK has moved in our understanding of what it means to be British, as related to the royals who tend to be supported the most by the more traditional end of the nation. It makes me proud to be British and Welsh and I welcome the future Duchess to the fold. The internet went a little far initially but seem to have got it right since then. They should learn from Diana, and then Kate, and allow her some privacy.



‘The young actress is being positioned as a modern strong feminist, which seems at odds with marrying a prince’: Ruth, Oxford

I’m a republican, so feel a sense of both ennui and dread at all the fuss that will be made over the coming months. The young prince seems to exude a sense of entitlement to all the benefits of his position while resenting the less welcome accoutrements of the role. The young actress is being positioned as a modern strong feminist, which seems at odds with marrying a prince and all that brings.

Profile Who is Meghan Markle? Show Hide Who is Meghan Markle? Meghan Markle is an American actor, best known for her role in the hit series Suits. She has described herself as “an actress, a writer, the editor-in-chief of my lifestyle brand the Tig, a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes”. She has also campaigned for humanitarian causes. The 36-year-old grew up in Los Angeles. She studied at a girls’ Roman Catholic college there before attending Northwestern University. Recently she has lived in Toronto. She is the daughter of a clinical therapist and a TV lighting designer. Markle has written about her mixed heritage, describing herself as “a strong, confident mixed-race woman”. She was married once before, to film producer Trevor Engelson, but the pair were divorced in 2013. Since news of her relationship with Prince Harry broke in 2016, she has closed her blog and given an interview in which she described the couple as “really happy and in love”. She said: “Nothing about me changed. I’ve never defined myself by my relationship.” She will become a duchess or princess when the couple wed. Photograph: Picture Perfect/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features

‘I love the idea of a mixed-race princess to show diversity is the future’: Tim, 50, Hertfordshire

As someone with a six-year-old mixed-race British-Chinese daughter I love the idea of a mixed-race princess to show that diversity is the future for this country.



‘It makes me feel I no longer have to feel excluded for the colour of my skin’: Christine, 59, Hampshire

What fantastic news; well done Prince Harry for following your heart. Love does not have a colour or a past. Well done for the openness of the new royal family. It makes me feel I no longer have to feel excluded for the colour of my skin, that as long as I am a good citizen contributing to the good of my country then every opportunity is open to me. At last I can feel like a real UK national! I am so pleased that we are moving into the 21st century – shame this cannot extend to some employers who cannot look beyond colour so we still have so far to go.

Timeline Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan Markle Show Hide

The pair meet in London through friends and begin a relationship. News breaks that the prince and Markle are dating. Kensington Palace confirms in an unprecedented statement that they are dating. The prince attacks the media over its “abuse and harassment” of his girlfriend.

Markle reportedly meets the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte for the first time in London.

The engagement looks set when Markle graces the cover of US magazine Vanity Fair and speaks openly about Harry for the first time, revealing: “We’re two people who are really happy and in love.” Markle makes her first appearance at an official engagement attended by the prince when she attends the Invictus Games opening ceremony in Toronto, Canada – although the pair sit about 18 seats apart. It emerges that the prince has taken Markle to meet his grandmother, the Queen, whose permission they need to marry. They met over afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace. The prince’s aides are reported to have been told to start planning for a royal wedding, with senior members of the royal family asked to look at their diaries to shortlist a series of suitable weekends in 2018. Clarence House announces the engagement, and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh say they are “delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness”.

The couple marry before a celebrity-studded congregation at St George's Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

The couple's first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, is born in London. They announce that they are to step back from life as 'senior' royals, triggering a row with Buckingham Palace. After a crisis meeting with the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William at Sandringham, the Queen issues a statement saying the couple will have a 'transition period' before ending their royal duties. It is announced that Harry and Meghan will drop their HRH titles and repay £2.4m of taxpayers money used to refurbish Frogmore Cottage.

‘The overblown fuss made by the press turns me completely off’: Simon, 68, London

I am delighted for anyone who is getting married, but the overblown fuss made by the press turns me completely off. The government will be delighted to have a royal sideshow to distract us from the damage being done to the country.

‘It’s a sign of the times’: Melissa, 31, south-east England

As a mixed-race woman I am excited that a woman of colour who is also a divorcee will be part of the royal family. It is a sign of the times.