Prince Harry Was Already Blown Away by Meghan Meghan Before Their First Date

• Royal fans everywhere know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (opens in new tab) met when they were set up on a blind date by mutual friends, but Harry was already super into Meghan before they met.
• Royal authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand reveal in their new book Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family (opens in new tab) that a friend had shown Harry and photo of Meghan that caught the prince's eye.
• The picture in question was of Meghan in a stunning silver mini dress at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in 2015.

Before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (opens in new tab) went on their life-changing blind date, the royal was already smitten with the actress, thanks to a particularly stunning photo.

In the new royal biography Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family (opens in new tab), authors Omid Scobie (opens in new tab) and Carolyn Durand (opens in new tab) reveal that both Harry and Meghan did their research about each other before the big date. Because, you know, they're humans in the age of the internet.

"Naturally, both participants in this blind date did their homework with a thorough Google search," the authors write, per The Sun (opens in new tab). "Harry, who scoped out Meghan on social media, was interested."

But, even before the pre-date Google sesh, Harry was already pretty smitten with Meghan, thanks to a picture a friend showed him.

"A friend had shown him an Instagram photo of Meghan in the slinky silver mini dress at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards," Scobie and Durand write.

For the record, this is the "slinky silver mini dress" Meghan wore to that event, and we totally get why it blew Harry away:

And, fun fact: Meghan attended that 2015 with her designer friend Misha Nonoo (opens in new tab), who, according to Finding Freedom, just so happened to be one of the two matchmakers (along with Markus Anderson) who orchestrated Harry and Meghan's blind date (opens in new tab).

Anyway, Scobie and Durand explain that Harry "liked what he saw" (opens in new tab) and was promptly set up with "newly-single" Meghan, who had recently joked to friends that she was looking for a "nice English gentleman to flirt with" during the trip to London. When Harry and Meghan connected, there was an instant, "palpable attraction" and they were instantly "in their own little world" on the date. According to Finding Freedom, they spent their first date sitting on "velvet club chairs" at Soho’s Dean Street Townhouse, talking about making "change for good." Yep, that sounds about right.

Even though their relationship ended up moving at lightning speed (opens in new tab) (their third date was their famous trip to Botswana, after all), Harry and Meghan didn't kiss (opens in new tab) on their first date. Still, they both knew that they were at the start of something real.

"Do I sound crazy when I say this could have legs?" Meghan reportedly asked a friend later that night, while Harry was apparently "in a trance" after meeting his future wife.

The feeling was mutual and "almost immediately they were obsessed with each other." And they lived happily ever after (we assume/hope, anyway—please, universe, don't destroy this relationship/our belief in true love (opens in new tab).