Prince Harry says he and US actress girlfriend Meghan Markle fell in love “so incredibly quickly” and it seemed proof that the “stars were aligned”.
The fifth in line to the throne was speaking after the couple announced their engagement and plans to marry in spring 2018.
The couple told the BBC’s Mishal Husain they met on a blind date and neither had known much about each other.
Prince Harry said “beautiful” Ms Markle “just tripped and fell into my life”.
He added he believed Ms Markle and his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, would have been “thick as thieves… best friends”.
Camping in Botswana
The star of US legal drama Suits confirmed she would be giving up acting and with her new role focus even more energy on the causes that are important to her.
Ms Markle said: “I don’t see it as giving anything up. I see it as a change. It’s a new chapter…”
Turning to Prince Harry, she said: “Now it’s time to work as a team with you.”
Prince Harry added: “I know that she will be unbelievably good at the job part of it as well.”
The couple described how they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, and how they got to know each other camping in Botswana.
“I think about three, maybe four weeks later I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana.
“And we camped out with each other under the stars… she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.”
‘Amazing surprise’
Prince Harry said he proposed earlier this month during a “standard, typical night for us” at his home in Kensington Palace as the couple were making roast chicken.
“It was just an amazing surprise. It was so sweet, and natural and very romantic,” Ms Markle said.
Prince Harry said: “She didn’t even let me finish. She said ‘Can I say yes’.
“Then there were hugs and I had the ring in my finger.
“I was like ‘ Can I give you the ring?’. It was a really nice moment. Just the two of us.”
Turning to Ms Markle, Prince Harry said: “And I think I managed to catch you by surprise as well.”
The couple declined to reveal the name of the mutual female friend who introduced them in July 2016.
Ms Markle said she “didn’t know much” about Prince Harry.
“The only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up, was ‘was he nice?'”.
The prince said he had not been aware of Ms Markle before their first meeting as he had never watched her TV show.
Earlier, the couple posed for photographs outside Kensington Palace in London, where they will live.
Prince Harry said he was “thrilled”, while Ms Markle said she was “so very happy”.
Ms Markle, wearing a white belted coat, held Harry’s hand as they appeared briefly for the press at the palace’s Sunken Garden, and showed off her diamond engagement ring.
Asked by a reporter when he knew Suits star Ms Markle “was the one”, Prince Harry said: “The very first time we met”.
The announcement of their engagement was issued by Clarence House on Twitter, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s official residence, and said details about the wedding day would be unveiled “in due course”.
-bbc