Prince Harry Reveals the Unlikely Place He First Met up With Meghan Markle to Avoid Press

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had a whirlwind romance, and ahead of their third wedding anniversary on May 19, the Duke of Sussex revealed a surprising new detail about their relationship. Appearing on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, the prince opened up about the early days of his relationship with his now-wife, revealing the surprising place they first met up amid their attempts to hide their relationship from the press.

Asked by Shepard if he had ever done "mundane things" as a royal, Harry candidly revealed the great lengths he and Markle went to stay "incognito" during their first dates. According to the duke, when he and his then-girlfriend first met up for her to come to stay with him, they met up at an unlikely location: "a supermarket in London." Harry said he and Markle went "incognito" and pretended "we didn't know each other, texting each other from the other side of the aisles."

"There's people looking at me, giving me all these weird looks, and coming up to me and saying 'hi.' I texted her saying 'is this the right one,' and she said 'no you want parchment paper,' and 'I'm like where's the parchment paper?'" he humorously recalled. "I had baseball cap on, looking down at the floor, trying to stay incognito. It's amazing how much chewing gum you see, it's a mess!"

Harry did not reveal when this meet-up occurred, though The Sun notes Markle was spotted leaving a Whole Foods store in Kensington in November 2016. News that Harry and Markle, who was then still an actress on Suits, first surfaced in October of that year. A year after Markle was spotted leaving that U.K. supermarket, Kensington Palace announced the couple "became engaged in London earlier this month." The announcement thrust them into the center of the spotlight, with the couple tying the knot on May 19, 2018, in a ceremony broadcast across the globe. It quickly became apparent, however, that the couple would make great attempts to lead more private lives, as the couple notoriously skipped on the traditional post-birth photo outside the hospital after welcoming son Arch in May 2019. The couple then announced in January 2020 they would be stepping back as senior royals and relocated to California, where Harry now says he feels "more free."

Opening up about his life in the U.S., the prince told Shepard that "living here now I can actually lift my head and actually I feel different, my shoulders have dropped, so has hers, you can walk around feeling a little bit more free." He added that he "can take Archie on the back of my bicycle. I never had the chance to do that." Harry and Markle are currently expecting their second child, a baby girl set to arrive this summer.