Kate & William ‘Very Excited’ For Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

We are back with the delightful news of Prince Harry’s engagement to Meghan Markle.

NOTE: This is not What Meghan Wore (nor will it become that), but this is enormous news with significant impact on Kate and William. We will cover it today. It is not a day for sniping or negative, mean-spirited comments. If not interested in the topic today’s post may not be for you, or you may want to scroll down to the Cyber Monday info.

After weeks of escalating rumors about an announcement from the couple, it was good to hear official news. 

Shortly after the announcement Harry and Meghan made their first official photocall together.

The pair elected to do it outside at the sunken gardens at Kensington Palace.

The Daily Telegraph noted that “The sunken garden is poignantly the site of the memorial garden created in memory of Harry’s late mother Diana, Princess of Wales to mark the 20th anniversary of her death this year.”

The skies were overcast, but the rain stayed away. This video is from Kensington Palace.

Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are “thrilled and happy” to be engaged. pic.twitter.com/HBz30SbZVE

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 27, 2017

The couple looked very, very happy.

Kensington Palace said Prince Harry designed Meghan’s engagement ring himself.

The center stone is a diamond from Botswana, a country where the Prince has spent a fair amount of time since he was a child. It is also a place Harry and Meghan have visited together. The diamonds on either side of the central stone belonged to his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. The band is made of gold, and the ring was made by Cleave and Company, Court Jewellers and Medallists to Her Majesty The Queen.

You can hear both Harry and Meghan talk about the ring in this portion of a BBC interview with the couple.

Prince Harry thinks Princess Diana and Meghan Markle would have been “thick as thieves, without question. I think she would be over the moon jumping up and down.” https://t.co/5Yo9mfo1uZ pic.twitter.com/eelJdGDmpO

— CNN International (@cnni) November 27, 2017

Kensington Palace issued a statement on behalf of Ms. Markle’s parents, Mr. Thomas Markle and Ms. Doria Ragland:

“We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.”

Here you see Meghan with her mother at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Toronto this September.

A sampling of reaction from other royals:

• Buckingham Palace reports “The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh are delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness.”
• Kensington Palace released a statement from Kate and William saying “We are very excited for Harry and Meghan. It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together.”
• The Prince of Wales, speaking for himself and The Duchess of Cornwall, said: “We’re thrilled. We’re both thrilled. We hope they’ll be very happy indeed.”

Congratulations poured in from other people and places. Below, a tweet from Sentebale. The charity supports young people and children in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV.  

And this from one of Meghan’s costars on Suits, Patrick J. Adams, via his Twitter account.

It turns out the engagement happened last week while Harry and Meghan were making dinner. These quotes are from a BBC interview with the couple via The Mirror:

Meghan said: “Trying to roast a chicken and it just – just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee.”

Harry added: “She didn’t even let me finish, she said can I say yes, can I say yes and then were was hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like can I – can I give you the ring? She goes – oh yes the ring.

For today’s announcement, Meghan wore a coat by LINE the label, a Canadian brand specializing in upscale and luxury knitwear. Her dress is by P.A.R.O.S.H., the Fitted Bow Detail Dress ($465) in a wool blend with a fitted silhouette, round neck, hidden back zipper and bow at the waist. 

Meghan wore opal earrings from Canadian jeweler Maison Birk. Her shoes are a pair she has worn previously, the Aquazzura Matilde Crisscross Suede Pump ($465), still available at Neiman Marcus in just two larger sizes. While the LINE coat is currently sold out, Glamour reports: “you can place an order for the coat by sending an email to line@nkpr.net. The Meghan coat retails for $799 Canadian dollars, which is about $626.50 in U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate.”

More from The Telegraph’s Bethan Holt:

She may be marrying a British Prince, but Meghan Markle has set out her international approach to style with her choice of outfit for the photo call marking her engagement to Prince Harry.

As a Hollywood actress and philanthropist, Markle is no stranger to what works for intense media moments- although she has never quite experienced the level of attention which the engagement announcement will bring- so today’s sartorial choice adhered to the streamlined, sophisticated style which she has honed during her time in the public eye.

There have been some inquiries about a What Meghan Wore blog. It’s more than tempting; it’s been a delight watching her style since she started seeing Harry. While I am waffling, at this point I think I will stick with WKW and WKKW. There *are* some excellent options for following Meghan’s style, including Mad About Meghan from Charlotte at HRH Duchess Kate; Meghan’s Fashion from Elizabeth at Kate’s Closet Australia; Carly from Kate Middleton Style is Meghan Markle Style on Twitter with a blog soon following; and my friend Susan of What Meg Wore on Twitter will soon have her What Meghan Wore site up and running.

If interested in watching the entire BBC interview with Meghan and Harry, here it is via The Guardian.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We also have some Cyber Monday deals to share:

• Sebago Bala: It’s been 40% off at Sebago throughout the weekend, but it is now 50% off with promo code CYBERMONDAY making the price about $47.
• The discount on the Superga Cotu Classic Sneaker at Backcountry USA has been increased to 30%, dropping the price a few more dollars to $45.99.
• At H&M the discount is now 30% off everything (it had been 20% off), with no exclusions
• At Shopbop take an additional $35 off all sale items with promo code WOW33
• LK Bennett US/CAN site: 30% off any order of $250 or more with promo code HAPPY30
• Nordstrom: Additional 20% off select sale merchandise
• Nordstrom Rack: Take additional 30% off clearance and free shipping (ends at midnight PST)
• Saks Off 5th: Take an extra 60% off cold weather styles with promo code CYBERMON

A few sales have been extended:

• Madderson London: Take 25% off sitewide with promo code THXGIVING25.
• Rupert Sanderson: All styles are still 30% off with promo code BlackFriday, including Kate’s navy Malory.
• Bobbi Brown: Take 25% off everything, no promo code needed

A NEW DEAL WORTH NOTING:

• Take an extra 50% off the already low prices of clearance merchandise at The Outnet. That makes things like the $1120 Goat Lace Dress just $256 (shown below, and available in several colors); the Temperley London Crochet Knit dress that was originally $1295 drops in price to $227; and the $1685 Roland Mouret Bleeker Dress is about $380 with the extra discount.

 

We’ll see you tomorrow when the Duchess visits The Foundling Museum in London.

 

LINKAGE: (I’ll update these shortly.)

• The Express primary news story is here; The Express story about the ring is here: Follow The Express live coverage here;
• The Evening Standard’s story about Meghan’s LINE The Label coat is here; The Sun’s fashion story is here; The Daily Mail’s fashion story is here
• The Hello! coverage is here: People magazine’s