Prince Harry Engaged To Northwestern Grad Meghan Markle

EVANSTON, IL — A Wildcat is being welcomed into the royal house of Windsor. Meghan Markle, a 2003 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Communications, and Prince Harry, who is fifth in line to become king, are set to wed in the spring. Royal officials confirmed the rumors of the pair's engagement, and the couple appeared before photographers at Kensington Palace Monday.

According to their engagement announcement, they were engaged in London earlier this month after Harry got the permission of Markle's parents. The 36-year-old divorceé is the daughter of a Hollywood lighting director father and a psychotherapist/yoga instructor mother. Harry, 33, the son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, informed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, the announcement said.

Markle stars as paralegal Rachel Zane on the USA Network show "Suits." She and Harry met in July 2016, she told Vanity Fair. She's also a humanitarian campaigner and lifestyle blogger.

Harry's older brother, Prince William, and his pregnant wife Kate issued a statement welcoming Markle to the royal family.

“We are very excited for Harry and Meghan,” the statement said. “It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together.”

Markle's parents, Doris Ragland and Thomas Markle, issued a statement of support for the newly engaged couple.

"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," they wrote. "We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together."

Prince Charles said he and his wife, Camilla, were "both thrilled" with the engagement.

"We hope they'll be very happy indeed," he said.

Markle came to Evanston when she was 18 and was the first person in her family to graduate college. During her senior year at Northwestern, where she double-majored in international relations and theater, she worked at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, she told Vanity Fair in an in-depth profile in its October 2017 issue.

During her time at Northwestern, Markle was the recruitment chair of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and frequented the now-defunct The Keg, British tabloid the Sunday Mirror reported. During a 2014 visit to campus to discuss "Suits," she also recalled spending time at the (formerly) 24-hour Burger King on Orrington Road.

A November 2016 statement from Harry's communications secretary confirming the couple's relationship said Markle has been "subject to a wave of abuse and harassment," including from the media and "the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments."

But Los Angeles-born Markle says the increased scrutiny that has come from dating a British royal has not bothered her.

"I don’t read any press. I haven’t even read press for Suits," she told Vanity Fair. "The people who are close to me anchor me in knowing who I am. The rest is noise.”

More details about wedding arrangements "will be announced in due course," royal officials announced. An interview with the couple with be broadcast Monday evening, UK time.

Congratulations Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle on their engagement!
His Royal Highness and Ms. Markle this afternoon visited Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden for a photocall to mark the happy news. pic.twitter.com/gEctA368ua
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 27, 2017

_{Top photo: Britain's Prince Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle pose for photographers Monday Nov. 27, 2017 | Matt Dunham | Associated Press}