As it happened: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle engaged - Is this finally the modern bride the royal family needs?

The wedding will take place in spring 2018

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have announced their engagement

Prince Harry is to marry his American actor girlfriend Meghan Markle, Clarence House has announced.

The official announcement said: “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms Meghan Markle. The wedding will take place in spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.

“His Royal Highness and Ms Markle became engaged in London earlier this month. Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms Markle’s parents. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.”

The fifth in line to the throne has been dating Markle since last summer and the 36-year-old actor is rumoured to be moving to the UK after quitting the hit US show Suits which she rose to fame for.

Prince Harry said he was "delighted to announce" the engagement and had gained the blessing of Markle's parents in a statement.

Speculation of a major royal announcement has grown in recent weeks as rumours about the couple's engagement have mounted.

Markle's parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland celebrated news of the engagement in a statement issued by Kensington Palace.

"We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person," they said.

"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."

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh “are delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness".

Key Points

• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce Royal engagement
• Meghan Markle to quit Suits after engagement to Prince Harry
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding: When will it happen?

[27 November 2017 12:26 · Lizzie Dearden]

Visiting Poundbury in Dorset the Prince of Wales said he was "thrilled" and "very happy indeed" for the happy couple.

[27 November 2017 12:30 · Lizzie Dearden]

Markle will leave Suits when season seven ends, ahead of her marrying Prince Harry.

US Weekly had reported the move ahead of the official announcement of the pair's engagement, only fuelling the ongoing rumours the announcement was imminent.

[27 November 2017 12:36 · Lizzie Dearden]

Messages of congratulations have flooded in for Markle and the royal.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, longtime Channel 4 News anchor, speculated about whether there would one day be some mixed race royal offspring.

[27 November 2017 12:41 · Lizzie Dearden]

We know that Prince Harry will marry Markle in Spring 2018 but further details of the wedding have yet to be announced. 

Royals usually have a short engagement and are traditionally during the week rather than at the weekend.

[27 November 2017 12:46 · Lizzie Dearden]

Here are some nuggets of advice the Duchess of Cambridge might offer Markle, her future sister-in-law, as she gets ready to embark on a life with the Windsors.

[27 November 2017 12:48 · Lizzie Dearden]

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has wished the newly engaged couple "great fun together".

“I wish them well, hope they have a great time and great fun together. Having met Harry a couple of times I’m sure they’re going to have a great deal of fun together," he said.

[27 November 2017 12:52 · Lizzie Dearden]

The bride-to-be, who rose to fame for playing ambitious paralegal Rachel Zane on Suits, has been married once before.

Markle married film producer Trevor Engelson in Jamaica in 2011 but they broke up after just two years.

[27 November 2017 12:54 · Lizzie Dearden]

Markle is a woman of many talents. She is an actor, entrepreneur, humanitarian and racial and gender equality campaigner and is a UN women’s advocate (for Political Participation and Leadership).

[27 November 2017 12:59 · Lizzie Dearden]

In December 2016, Markle wrote a column for Elle about establishing her identity as a mixed-race woman. As the daughter of an African-American mother and caucasian father, she explained her confusion at not knowing which box to tick on a form asking her ethnicity at school as the options were limited to white, black, hispanic or Asian.

At the beginning of her acting career, she said she often missed out on roles as she “wasn’t black enough for the black roles and wasn’t white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job”.

[27 November 2017 13:04 · Lizzie Dearden]

The leader of the DUP party accidentally heaped congratulations on the wrong Prince after it was announced that Markle and the prince were engaged.

Arlene Foster congratulated the couple via Twitter but accidentally addressed the message to Prince Harry's brother. “Congratulations to HRH Prince William on his engagement," she said.

Despite quickly deleting the tweet when she reposted a message she still managed to spell his future wife’s name wrong.

“Congratulations to HRH Prince Harry and Megan Markle on their engagement. Wonderful news this morning!” she said.