As a brunette, an American and a human rights campaigner, Meghan Markle is something of a departure from Prince Harry’s usual type.

But if rumours are to be believed, the pair have been dating for nearly six months after meeting in Canada.

The 35-year-old actress, who is best known for her role as Rachel Zane in US legal drama Suits, is believed to have charmed the royal when he visited Toronto.

As claims the pair were ‘besotted’ with each other emerged last night, keen observers spotted pictures of them wearing matching bracelets and it's possible he gave a similar to trinket to Meghan as a gift.

Toronto-based actress Meghan, 35, shared a snap of herself wearing the jewellery on a recent trip to Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire.

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Actress Meghan Markle, 35, may have inadvertently dropped a hint about her rumoured relationship with Harry by posting a photo in which she's wearing a blue and white bracelet almost identical to one sported by the royal

Prince Harry pictured in Aberdeen last month wearing a blue, white and black beaded bracelet that looks very much like the jewellery worn by his rumoured girlfriend Meghan

Glamorous brunette Meghan stars as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits, which is filmed in Toronto - the city where she is believed to have first met Harry

Racy: The actress with a co-star during a particularly fruity scene in legal drama Suits

The prince, 32, also follows the actress on the picture sharing website Instagram using a pseudonym, the Mail can reveal.

Intriguingly, Harry, who publicly professes to hate social media, is one of her million followers and she also follows him.

The revelation is telling because the prince has a private account and only ‘follows’ a few close friends and charities, suggesting the pair know each other fairly well.

The Prince is said to be besotted with Meghan after meeting in Toronto during the summer as Harry promoted his Invictus Games.

A source close to the prince, who is fifth-in-line to the throne, told The Express that he is ‘besotted’ with the star,who plays Rachel Zane in the hit legal drama Suits.

‘He’s happier than he’s been for many years,’ they said. ‘He’s in a very relaxed period of his life and Meghan has come along at the right time.

‘They are taking each week as it comes and just enjoying each other’s company but it’s fair to say that they love seeing each other and there’s a definite chemistry between them.’

Megan shared an image showcasing her bracelet collection with Instagram fans recently, including a blue, white and black beaded number that looks very much like Prince Harry's

Is this proof Meghan is dating the royal? Suits star's bracelet bears a striking resemblance to one worn by Harry

The stunning brunette, pictured at the Today show in New York in July 2016, is said to share a 'definite chemistry' with a besotted Prince Harry

LA-born actress Meghan Markle, 35, as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits is rumoured to be dating Prince Harry after meeting him in Toronto where the hit legal drama is filmed

Harry is said to be 'besotted' with the actress and has introduced her to William and Kate

According to reports, she has dined with Harry when in London and has met his friends. She stayed with him at Kensington Palace and met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, according to the Express.

‘William and Kate really liked her and she fitted in straight away,’ the source added. ‘Meghan is a very confident and intelligent woman and she’s not overawed mixing with royalty.’

The new couple are believed to have met in Toronto in May this year where LA-born Meghan is based and Suits is filmed.

Meghan Markle at Elle's 6th Annual Women in Television Dinner

Harry was in the city to promote his Invictus Games for wounded servicemen, and according to the source she's been to London to visit him on several occasions since.

Indeed, Meghan has shared two snaps of the capital - one taken nine weeks ago, and another 16 weeks ago.

In late June and early July she was seen enjoying the tennis from the royal box at Wimbledon.

She reportedly stayed at Kensington Palace during her time in London and has been introduced to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

LA-born Meghan was previously married to her long-term boyfriend

As well as the pressure of dating a royal, Meghan may be eager to take things slow as she's already been married.

She wed her long-term boyfriend film producer Trevor Engelson in Jamaica in 2011, but the couple split three years later.

The same year she was also linked to golfer Rory McIlroy.

Miss Markle marks a change in Harry’s taste in women, as he tends to go for society blondes. She’s also no shrinking violet. Her Suits character – a legal assistant – is filmed in one scene in her bra as she consummates her relationship with junior partner Mike Ross in the office store room.

Harry’s first – and most serious relationship – was with Zimbabwean designer Chelsy Davy, with whom he had a tempestuous seven-year relationship. Dancer and actress Cressida Bonas was his most recent long-term girlfriend but the couple split after two years in 2014.

Miss Markle is older than him – an attractive quality as the prince has often spoken of his desire to commit and start a family like his brother.

The globe trotting brunette actress is also a UN advocate and style blogger

Meghan has styled herself as an actress, lifestyle writer and philanthropist

The actress has previously been linked to golfer Rory McIroy and was previously married to a film producer

Meghan caught the acting bug early and spent a great deal of her childhood on the set of Married With Children where her father was director of photography.

Her first gig was a role in the daytime soap General Hospital and roles in the sci-fi drama Fringe, 90210 and CSI: NY followed, before she got her big break with suits.

She's played the role of paralegal Rachel Zane since 2011.

Outside of acting, she's known for her philanthropic work, which is surely a big draw for Harry - especially given her interest in Africa.

Meghan has played the role of paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits since 2011 after appearing in shows such as 90210 and General Hospital

Meghan in Rwanda where she travelled as part of her role as an advocate for UN Women

Meghan recently acted as bridesmaid for TV producer Lindsay Roth (left) and is pictured at the launch of her fashion collection with Candian brand Reitmans (right)

The actress posted this snap of Trafalgar Square on Instagram. She's said to have been to stay at Kensington Palace with Harry and has been introduced to William and Kate

She is a Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada, and has travelled to Rwanda on behalf of the charity's Clean Water Campaign.

She has also travelled to Afghanistan to support US forces and their families.

Both she and Harry reportedly like yoga and the Prince is increasingly keen to establish his humanitarian credentials.

Meghan is also involved with the United Nations and is an advocate for UN Women alongside the likes of Emma Watson and Angelina Jolie.

The multi-talented actress has collaborated with Canadian fashion brand Reitmans on a clothing line, which goes on sale in the coming weeks

Meghan Markle and her ex-husband Trevor Engelson arrive at the Anti-Defamation League Entertainment Industry Awards Dinner in 2011. The pair split up in 2014

She was scouted for the role after writing a piece on personal independence on the fourth of July for her lifestyle website TIG, where she blogs about her love of food, fashion, travel and beauty.

A Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UN Women got in touch and Meghan offered to fly to New York for work experience.

'I wanted to see what they were doing at ground level. It was important not just attach my name to an organisation, even if it was the UN,' she toldThe Aesthete.

'I called and said, “I have a week off from filming, can I come work in the office for a week?” They replied that no one had ever asked that.'

Meghan backstage with Serena Williams at the launch of the tennis star's fashion collection

The fitness fanatic is said to share a mutual interest in yoga with Prince Harry

Meghan spent a week shadowing meetings dressed in work attire borrowed from the set of Suits.

The multi-talented actress has collaborated with Canadian fashion brand Reitmans on a clothing line, which goes on sale in the coming weeks.

The daughter of an African-American mother and a father of Dutch and Irish descent, Miss Markle spent time on film sets as a child.

Her father Thomas was a cinematographer, and worked on the hit US sitcom Married With Children. She graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied theatre and international relations, and worked for the US embassy in Buenos Aires.

The actress initially worked as a freelance calligrapher, once writing invitations to singer Robin Thicke’s wedding, before getting the role in Suits which has made her a household name in the US. Kensington Palace refused to comment on the reports yesterday, but sources said the claims had a ‘ring of truth’.

Kruger Cowne, representatives of the actress, said the romance was still ‘unofficial’. A spokesman added: ‘However, should this be confirmed by the Palace, all of us at Kruger Cowne are delighted for them and wish them well.’

Harry's saucy divorcee: How Prince's rumoured new lover is a rosé-loving yoga aficionado who has starred in some VERY fruity TV scenes and has battled prejudice over her mixed-race heritage

Actress, self-styled humanitarian, writer, world traveller and most recently, fashion designer. Should Prince Harry's new love interest, Meghan Markle, be invited to sit down for tea at Buckingham Palace, she certainly won't be short of conversation.

Actress with a social conscience: Meghan Markle, Harry's rumoured new love interest

Stunningly beautiful — and not in the society blonde style of previous girlfriends — it's not difficult to see why Harry might have been drawn to the 35-year-old Los Angeles-born actress, who stars in hit US TV drama Suits.

Unlike many of his other conquests, Meghan is remarkably open with her private life — she's posted more than 2,000 times on social media site Instagram, where she has a million followers and has her own blogging website The Tig, named after her favourite Italian wine, Tignanello.

On Instagram, she's fond of posting shots of herself beaming in glamorous locations — holidays in the past year include Italy's Amalfi coast, Ibiza and Tulum in Mexico — and rather twee lifestyle mantras, such as 'she was afraid of heights, but she was more afraid of never flying'.

There are endless pictures, too, of her giggling with big groups of female friends over coffee or wine — she has an enormous network of friends all over the world.

Celebrity contacts include tennis star Serena Williams and Made In Chelsea heiress Millie Mackintosh. On her blog, subjects range from how to balance acting and humanitarian work to tips on New York boutiques and recipes for spelt biscuits. She's also not afraid of expressing political opinions: she is clearly anti-Brexit, posting pictures of Remain placards during her last visit to London.

Like her Suits character, Rachel Zane, Meghan is of mixed race. Her mother is an African-American former travel agent turned-yoga instructor (complete with dreadlocks and a nose stud), while her father is a white retired director of photography who worked on hit U.S. sitcom Married With Children.

Tell-tale clues: Observers noted that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have both been wearing identical blue beaded bracelets on their wrists. Pictured, the pair with their jewellery

A different perspective: The Los Angeles-born actress as a child with her mother, Doria

Proud: A recent photograph of her mother Doria posted on Meghan's Instagram page

Her great-great-great grandfather was a slave, who took the name Wisdom when slavery was abolished in America.

Meghan writes movingly of her childhood and her mum and dad's mixed-race marriage on her website: 'I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques,' she writes. 'Whatever it was, they married and had me.

'They moved into a house in The Valley in LA to a neighbourhood that was leafy and affordable. What it was not, however, was diverse. And there was my mom, caramel in complexion with her light-skinned baby in tow, being asked where my mother was since they assumed she was the nanny.'

Ex-husband: Miss Markle with Trevor Engelson, 40, who she married in 2011

From her writing, it's clear that her heritage is a subject with which Meghan is deeply preoccupied. She writes that she once deliberately left a mandatory ethnicity box on a school census form blank. Her teacher told her to tick Caucasian, 'because that's how you look'. But Meghan said she put her pen down because she couldn't bear to picture 'the pit-in-her belly sadness my mother would feel if she were to find out'.

She also describes hankering after a boxed set of Barbie dolls, a family that either came in black or white versions, and her delight on Christmas morning when she discovered her gift-wrapped family, customised by her father to include a black mum, a white dad and a child in each colour.

She undoubtedly enjoyed a privileged upbringing — she went to a private Roman Catholic school in LA.

Interviews with the star are also littered with references to her global travels with her mother — though never 'conventional' family trips to Disney World. It was Hawaii and Mexico where she was encouraged to get an 'authentic cultural experience'.

Even as a little girl she was highly political.

Aged 11, she saw a TV advert for a washing liquid, with the tagline 'women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans'. Incensed by the perceived sexism, she wrote to the manufacturer and then First Lady Hillary Clinton in protest.

Within a few months, the advert was duly changed to 'people all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans'. Ten years of accompanying her father on the set of Married With Children fuelled a passion for acting.

On leaving school, she went to Northwestern University, Illinois, where she started out taking theatre studies, before deciding she didn't want to be a 'cliche', so ended up completing a double major in theatre and international relations.

During her second year she applied for an internship at a U.S. embassy, ended up working in Buenos Aires and decided on a career in politics.

However, she returned to college to pursue acting when a friend introduced her to an agent, who saw a student film she starred in and told her she would 'make money' acting.

Fiercely independent: Miss Markle in July

Meghan says the fact she was mixed race presented some difficulties. 'I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white roles,' she wrote.

There was a short-lived stint as a model — holding one of the prize money briefcases on the U.S. version of Deal Or No Deal — and parts in a string of shows from General Hospital and 90210 to CSI and the 2011 film Horrible Bosses. But it was her role in Suits as a feisty paralegal (an American legal assistant) — with mixed-race parentage much like her own — that catapulted her to stardom.

To date, Meghan's romantic life has been low profile, but not without drama.

She is understood to have begun dating her first husband, Trevor Engelson, now 40, who has a production company and bears more than a passing resemblance to Prince Harry, in 2004.

In 2011, the pair married, exchanging vows in a barefoot ceremony in front of 102 guests in Jamaica. But they went their separate ways in 2013, for reasons unknown.

Since then, she has been linked with Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy and Canadian chef Cory Vitiello, who this March was boasting on Twitter that he was 'so proud of my lady' after she was named a global ambassador for the children's charity World Vision.

Speaking of which, Meghan appears to have chosen the Angelina Jolie/Emma Watson approach to fame and is a vocal advocate on behalf of the United Nations.

She was so keen to get on board that she volunteered to be an intern at the UN buildings in New York for a week before becoming a 'women's advocate for political participation'.

Certainly it's easy to see what happy-go-lucky Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have in common. What's less clear is how they will find time to meet, or what some female members of the Royal Family will make of a fiercely independent young woman whose Twitter missives include: 'I've never wanted to be a lady who lunches — I've always wanted to be a woman who works.'

But Meghan does have time for some leisure activities. She loves yoga and dotes on her two rescue dogs, Bogart and Guy, loves to cook and drink 'copious amounts of rosé' — a fact that will surely relieve the party-loving Prince Harry.

She also loves fine wine, as well as a spicy tequila cocktails, negroni cocktail or a good Scotch, served neat.

Asked if she could host a dinner party with any five people who would be there, she listed American chefs Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, film star Gwyneth Paltrow, Britain's Jamie Oliver and her best friend.

Bright career: Miss Markle, 35, as Rachel Zane in a scene from US drama Suits

Should Prince Harry be wondering what is the way to this lady's heart, she says her favourite food is French fries, but adopts a mostly vegan lifestyle during the week. She loves a man in a linen shirt, she says, especially barefoot on a beach, and claims that her idea of a perfect date is refreshingly simple.

'It doesn't matter if it's fancy or not, it's all about the company and embracing every little second of it,' she said in one interview.

'I've had dates at the nicest restaurants, but when you leave you're starving and the best part of the date is having a slice of pizza and a couple of drinks on the way home. I think it's important to be able to roll with the punches and enjoy every minute of it. If he makes you laugh, that helps.'

Should it come to gifts, she says lingerie is 'always nice'. She also loves how British men call women 'darling' and is a 'sucker for a compliment'. And the best way to get her attention? 'Kindness.'