When Prince Harry made the news public to his trusted advisors of his plans to marry Meghan Markle, he was told of the royal rules he had to follow. And one of these rules was asking his grandmother, the Queen, for permission to propose.
The Duke made plans to do so during a family shooting trip in Sandringham, hoping she would be in a "good mood", The Mirror reports. In his memoir, Spare, Harry made it clear that he was annoyed at having to ask his grandmother, claiming it "didn't make any sense" as he was a grown man.
His unhappiness with this rule was clear when he found a moment to ask the Queen, and her short reply left Harry speechless. The Duke admits that he was nervous about asking his Granny for permission, knowing that a "no" would cause chaos in his relationship with Meghan.
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He decided to wait until the family were on a shooting trip in Sandringham, hoping it would put the Queen would be in a "good mood".
Once the activities were done, Harry managed to get the Queen alone, and admitted that his mind was racing. He recalls his exact words, writing in Spare about how much he loved Meg and that he wanted to marry her.
He then said he asked: "I've been told that I have to ask your permission before I can propose". The Queen then replied: "You have to?" to which Harry replied that is what he had been told.
There was a moment of silence before the Queen replied: "Well then, I suppose I have to say yes."
Harry admits he was completely thrown by her answer. He writes: "I didn't get it. Was she being sarcastic? Ironic? Deliberately cryptic? Was she indulging in a bit of wordplay?
"I'd never known Granny to do any wordplay and this would be a surpassingly bizarre moment (not to mention widely inconvenient) for her to start, but maybe se just saw the chance to play off my unfortunate use of the world "have" and couldn't resist."
He claims he stood there trying to figure out what she had said, but then "realised" she had said yes, describing himself as a "muppet". He then thanked her, saying it was "fabulous".
Once the Queen agreed, Harry dove into action designing the ring - taking two diamonds from Princess Diana's collections and one from his beloved Botswana to create the gold ring. He popped the all-important question during a night in at their Kensington home - but almost gave the game away with his choice of drink.
Speaking of his proposal in their Netflix show Harry & Meghan, the prince explained: "I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was roasting a chicken and that kind of slightly gave the game away.
"She was like, 'You never drink champagne, what's the occasion?' And I was like, 'I don't know, I just had it like, lying around."
As Harry set things up, Meghan called a friend to share her excitement. She recorded the phone call and can be heard saying: "Oh my God Jess, Jess, it's happening, it's happening. He told me not to peak."
The couple shared a romantic photo of the moment on the docuseries, showing Harry kneeling on a blanket holding a ring box in one hand and Guy's collar in the other while a bunch of white roses sat on the floor in front of him.
Describing the moment in their engagement interview, Harry explained: "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." So no it was - it was a really nice moment, it was just the two of us and I think managed to catch - catch her by surprise as well."
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