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It’s not easy to find your soul mate but imagine searching for love when you have an abundance of wealth and privilege? It could sometimes make finding the ‘one’ impossible!
These royals didn’t allow their status to get in the way of finding their true love: from meeting in a pub, at university, the gym or at a festival, their first meetings are pretty ordinary – giving us all some hope that we too could find our very own Prince in the most normal of places!
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
Prince William and Kate Middleton met in 2001, whilst the pair were studying at the University of St Andrews. The future Queen was a History of Art student who caught the young royal’s attention when she strutted down the catwalk of a fashion show at St Andrews University.
Kate is reported to have curtsied to her future husband when they first met, with William responding by spilling a drink on himself. Speaking about their first interaction, the future King stated: “When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her, and I knew there was something I wanted to explore there.”
Talking in their engagement interview in 2010, Kate explained: “We moved in together as friends, because we were living together, we lived with a couple of others as well and it sort of blossomed from there really, we just saw more of each other and hung out a bit more and it went from there really.”
WATCH: 7 of the most expensive royal weddings of all time
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dated for two years before they announced their engagement in November 2017, with the royal couple welcoming their first child, Archie, together in May 2019, and their daughter, Lilibet, in June 2021.
In their engagement interview with the BBC, following the announcement of their plans to wed, Harry revealed that a mutual friend had introduced them in July 2016, with the couple agreeing to a blind date in London.
Meghan went on to explain: “Because I’m from the States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. I didn’t know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, ‘Well is he nice?’ Because if he wasn’t kind, it just didn’t seem like it would make sense.”
MORE: 18 incredible photos from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding
Keep clicking for more photos…
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The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
Her Majesty and Prince Philip met in 1934 at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle), when the Queen was just eight years old.
Five years later, the duo met again at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, exchanging letters after this meeting.
In 1946, Philip asked King George VI for his daughter’s hand in marriage, the pair were married the following year.
The Duke sadly passed away at the age of 99 in April 2021, having shared 73 years of marriage with the Queen.
MORE: The Queen and Prince Philip’s love story
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5/16
Zara and Mike Tindall
Zara was introduced to rugby player Mike Tindall by her cousin, Prince Harry in 2003, when they were all in Sydney for the Rugby World Cup. Zara met her future husband at the Manly Wharf bar in Sydney.
Speaking to The Daily Mail in 2011, Mike explained: “She was on her gap year and in Australia with friends, Clive (Woodward, the coach) had just told me I was dropped for the semi-final, so I went out for a beer with two others who weren’t playing, Martin Corry and Austin Healey. Zara was in the same bar; we got introduced but didn’t speak that much. Later on, Austin gave me her number and said, ‘She wants you to text her, to say where you’re all going out after the final so she can come along.'”
The duo wedded in July 2011 at a private wedding at Edinburgh’s Canongate Kirk. The couple are now parents to three children – Mia, Lena and Lucas.
MORE: Mike and Zara Tindall’s cutest PDA moments
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Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank
Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank met in 2010, after being introduced by mutual friends whilst both skiing in Verbier. In an exclusive interview with the couple following their engagement in 2018, Jack explained: “We were skiing which was amazing. Love at first sight.” It seems likely that the couple might have crossed paths at some point had it not been skiing, as Jack was the former manager of Mayfair club Mahiki, which is a club adored by royals including Prince William and Prince Harry.
The couple welcomed their first child, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, in February 2021.
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Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
Edoardo’s father Alex met Beatrice’s mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, in the Swiss ski resort Verbier in 1972 and the families have been friends for years.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo made their first public appearance at the National Portrait Gallery’s 2019 Gala. That same year, they were spotted at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and Edoardo accompanied Beatrice on a family trip.
They then made a joint appearance at Lady Gabriella Windsor’s May wedding to Thomas Kingston at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor.
Edoardo proposed to Beatrice in Italy with a custom-designed engagement ring from British jeweller, Shaun Leane, and their engagement was announced in 2019.
The couple tied the knot in a private Windsor wedding during the pandemic in July 2020 and welcomed their first child, Sienna, in September 2021.
MORE: Why Princess Beatrice’s breathtaking royal wedding dress made history
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The Earl and Countess of Wessex
Prince Edward began dating former PR boss Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1993 after being introduced by a mutual friend several years earlier. After a long-term relationship, the prince popped the question to his girlfriend just before Christmas in 1998, proposing with a three-diamond ring from British royal jeweller Garrard.
The couple finally announced their happy news in January 1999 and were married at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on 19 June 1999.
Edward and Sophie are proud parents to Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, born in 2003 and 2007 respectively.
MORE: The Countess of Wessex said the sweetest thing about Prince Edward at their engagement announcement
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Queen Letizia and King Felipe
When Queen Letizia met her second husband Prince Felipe in 2002, the well-known journalist was working for Television Espanola on its news channel 24 Horas. The successful television presenter was reporting an environmental catastrophe of an oil tanker that had sank off the coast of Galicia when she met then Prince Felipe who had flown in to offer his support to the communities effected by the oil spill. The couple announced their shock engagement in November 2003, having secretly dated for a year, marrying the following year.
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10/16
Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
Mary and Frederik married in 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, with the duo meeting just four years earlier in Sydney. The Danish royal’s love story began not like a storybook tale, but as a down-to-earth meeting during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The couple met at the Slip Inn pub in Sydney, whilst Frederik was relaxing with the Danish sailing team.
MORE: 5 royal romances that blossomed at the Olympics
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Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence
The Queen’s only daughter met her second husband, Sir Tim Laurence, when he served as an equerry to Her Majesty.
The couple married on 12 December 1992 at Crathie Parish Church, Ballater, near Balmoral. They reside at Anne’s Gloucestershire home, Gatcombe Park.
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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel
The pair met when Daniel Westling became Victoria‘s personal trainer in 2001. The couple married in 2010, on the exact same day that Victoria’s parents wedded in 1976.
READ MORE: Our favourite photos of royals meeting starstruck celebrities
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Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway
The couple tied the knot in 2001 and are one of Europe’s most popular royal couples. The pair met in 1999, at a concert at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, becoming engaged a year later.
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Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
Maxima met Willem-Alexander in April 1999 at the Seville Spring Fair in Spain. The King and Queen of the Netherlands later revealed in interviews that the Maxima was unaware of Willem's title when they were first introduced. After their initial meeting at the fair, the couple met again two weeks later in New York where Maxima was working and their relationship blossomed from there.
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Prince Christian of Hanover and Alessandra De Osma
Prince Christian of Hanover and Alessandra de Osma officially tied the knot in an intimate civil ceremony in 2017, but the couple celebrated officially with a lavish ceremony in Lima in March 2018. The 33-year-old met the beautiful 25-year-old back in 2005, when she was a tour guide during one of the Prince's trips to Peru, but the couple did not start dating until a few years later.
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Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden
The charming Prince and the former reality TV star met during a lunch with friends, with Sofia explaining to Swedish Channel TV 4 in a joint interview with her future husband that their meeting was “love at first sight”. Sofia went on to explain that: “The first thing I noticed about Carl Philip was that he seemed very humble” adding, “When I got to know him, I saw that he was incredibly natural, very intelligent and very humble.”
The couple are now parents to three sons – Prince Alexander, Prince Gabriel and Prince Julian.
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