When thinking about fairytales, we can always imagine the prince and princesses in their castles from the stories we heard from childhood, and while fairytales do always have happy endings, the road to get there has an equal amount of challenges well.
Princes and princesses in real life also have their own stories to tell, and we decided to make a list of royal couples in the British monarchy on how they found love.
We hope that this list will inspire you and believe in love!
1. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip
In 1934, Queen Elizabeth was just 8 years old when she first met Prince Philip at Prince George’s wedding and neither of them could imagine the long road that was ahead of them.
Five years later after their first meeting, they met again and started sending letters to each other. Philip asked King George for the future Queen’s hand. While King George agreed to their marriage, he told Philip to hold off the announcement and wait until Elizabeth turned 21.
On November 20, 1947, the couple got married at Westminster Abbey. They had three children, Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
2. Prince Charles and Princess Diana
In 1977, Prince Charles reportedly met Lady Diana Spencer when she was just 16 years old, and that he was actually dating Sarah at that time, Diana’s older sister.
Prince Charles frequently visited the Spencer household, and many believed that those were the times that the Prince developed an interest with Diana and gradually began a relationship with her.
Eventually, Charles finally introduced Diana to the royal family in 1980 at Balmoral in Scotland.
After gaining the Spencers’ blessing, Charles continued to pursue Diana in London until he proposed in 1981. Their grand wedding took place on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and was viewed by more than 750 million people worldwide. A year later, Prince William was born, followed by his younger brother, Harry, after 2 years.
3. Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla
According to reports, Prince Charles first met Camilla Parker Bowles in 1970. They both belong to the same social circle and frequently attended the same events, like polo matches.
Charles and Camilla had a lot of things in common and eventually started dating for a few months. However, the prince was sent on a Royal Navy mission for 8 months and, by the time he returned from the mission, Camilla was already engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.
After many scandals and speculations, Prince Charles and Camilla divorced their respective partners and after Princess Diana’s death, the prince was encouraged to give love another chance with his first love.
Charles and Camila announced their engagement in 2008, 35 years later after they first met. The two got married on April 9 of the same year.
4. Prince William and Kate Middleton
William and Kate met in 2001 when they were still students at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Reports said that that the two didn’t start dating until 2003.
While they never went public about their relationship, it was known that they were a couple. That’s also had a brief breakup in 2007 but the two grew closer back to each other again in 2008 with Kate frequently attending some of the Royal family events, even though Prince William was not present at all of them.
Eventually, they worked out their differences and got engaged in 2010. The prince gave Princess Diana’s sapphire ring to Kate as a symbol of union, and the rest is history. They got married on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey. They had three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis.
5. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
In 2016, Prince Harry met actress Meghan Markle in London. They two were actually on a blind date arranged by a common friend whose identity remains unknown until today.
Eventually, Meghan admitted that they had been secretly dating for several months before making their first public appearance.
In 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan finally decided to put the rumors to rest and attended the Invictus Games in Toronto together while holding hands publicly. The couple announced their engagement later that year in the gardens of Kensington Palace and tied the knot not on May 19, 2018, at St. George’s Chapel. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their first born son, Archie, a year later.