Why Prince Harry 'freaked out' before publicly announcing his relationship with Meghan Markle

A new book has made the bold claim that Meghan Markle 'threatened to dump' Prince Harry if he didn't make their relationship public.

• The book, Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown by Valentine Low, details  the ultimatum that Meghan allegedly gave Harry.
• The book claims that when they were first dating, Meghan wanted Harry to go public with how serious they were.
• This follows royal news that King Charles will 'make drastic Buckingham Palace changes.'

According to an extract from the book, which has been published in The Times (opens in new tab), Harry was facing "hordes of journalists" keen to find out about his new girlfriend's life, but Harry "became determined to protect" her.

However, Meghan apparently had other ideas as she wanted them to go public with how serious their relationship was becoming - and she even threatened to end the relationship if Harry didn't do something about it.

Author Valentine Low wrote, "Faced with hordes of journalists intent on trawling through every aspect of Meghan’s life, Harry became determined to protect his girlfriend. 

"Meghan, meanwhile, told him that if he did not do something about it, she would break off the relationship."

He continued, "A source said, 'She was saying, if you don’t put out a statement confirming I’m your girlfriend, I’m going to break up with you. Harry was in a panic. Another source said, 'He was freaking out, saying, 'she’s going to dump me.’"

Valentine claims that Harry then phoned Jason Knauf, the young American who was recruited by Kensington Palace in 2015 to be the communications secretary for the Cambridges and Prince Harry, telling him how Meghan wanted public validation that this was a serious relationship.

He asked him to put out a statement confirming that Meghan was his girlfriend and condemning the racist and sexist undertones of some of the media coverage. 

The couple announced their engagement in November 2017 and tied the knot at St. George's Chapel in May 2018. Earlier this year, it was revealed that their wedding topped the list of most popular celebrity wedding, with over 2.5m Google searches.

Not only that, but Meghan’s was the most popular wedding dress of the last decade, even beating Princess Catherine, who married Prince William in 2011 at Westminster Abbey.