Meghan Markle Was Once Asked to Pick Between Harry and William And It Got Real Awkward

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and Prince William on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
May 18 2025, Published 8:46 a.m. ET
Meghan Markle once found herself in a rather uncomfortable situation during a media interview in 2015 when she was asked to choose between royal brothers, Prince Harry and Prince William. Her hesitant reaction created a buzz at the time, and the awkward moment even made its way to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan. In the series, when Markle was shown the old clip, embarrassed, she offered a lighthearted apology to Harry for her response.
The resurfaced clip shows a relaxed Markle being interviewed on different topics, when the question drops who she likes more — William or Harry. As reported by Tyla, Markle joikingly said, "I don't know." When the host pressed, "Prince Harry?" Markle replied, “Sure, Harry.” The following year, Markle met Harry in July 2016, and just a month later, they went on a romantic trip to Botswana, as reported by the Royal Insider.
Reflecting on Markle’s awkward response in the interview, royal biographer Andrew Morton opined that her focus was never on royal titles; rather, she was more interested in knowing whether Harry had a good heart. He wrote, “The answer lay in his blue eyes. As they say in movies, they had each other at ‘hello.’” Morton added, “She understood him as a man, not a title. In that subtle one-upmanship of a first date, he realized that while his grandmother might be the Queen, Meghan had given a speech at a United Nations forum. As he subsequently confessed, he realized that he would have to up his game.”
In a 2017 BBC interview, Markle confessed that she didn’t know much about Harry or the royal family before their first date. As reported by Business Insider, she explained, "Because I'm from the States, you don't grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. I didn't know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up was, 'Well, is he nice?' Cause if he wasn't kind, it just didn't seem like it would make sense."
In her Oprah Winfrey interview, Markle told the veteran host that she never Googled Harry and had to learn how to curtsy to the Queen before meeting her for the first time. Meanwhile, speaking of their relationship, Harry previously said, "I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly — it was a confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned." News about Harry and Markle’s relationship first made the rounds just before Halloween 2016. However, one of the couple's friends revealed that they had been dating for a few months before going public. Harry and Markle celebrated the 2017 New Year together as they headed to Norway to see the Northern Lights.