For a royal-born prince, I don’t think Prince Harry had many “moves” before he met then-Meghan Markle. He was a panicked, sweaty mess (and LATE) on their first date. In Spare, he made it sound like Meghan kissed him first, and she was the one who organized their first dates. But Harry did have one “move” – inviting Meghan to Botswana just days after their first date. It was a move he pulled with several other ladies. All of which is common knowledge, and yet this is the Mail’s top royal story today:

Though Prince Harry recently visited Africa alone, it was once a place he used to help solidify his relationship with Meghan Markle – as well as several of his previous girlfriends. Early in their blossoming romance, Harry invited Meghan on a trip to Botswana in 2017. They stayed ‘in a £1,500 deluxe tent at the Meno a Kwena safari camp,’ Tina Brown claims in her 2022 book The Palace Papers.

However, the royal biographer tells how Prince William was quick to point out to his ‘starry-eyed’ younger brother: ‘You do realise this is the fourth girl you’ve taken to Botswana?’

King Charles’s younger son had asked a number of romantic interests to accompany him on a trip – including actress Cressida Bonas, who, Ms Brown writes, ‘passed the Africa test on a successful vacation together in the Okavango Delta [in Botswana]’. After visiting several times for charity work, the southern African nation became a favourite place of Harry’s, ‘especially when trying to impress a girlfriend’, Andrew Morton wrote in his 2018 release, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.

He also took television presenter Natalie Pinkham there, reportedly in 2004. Harry visited again the following year, this time with his on-and-off girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and they are said to have made annual trips there during their seven years together.

While none of these relationships worked out, Harry’s African getaway with Meghan became particularly memorable – for it was where the couple deepened their relationship. With ‘breath-taking views across the dark-blue waters of the nearby Boteti River’, according to Mr Morton, Harry and Meghan enjoyed long walks, safaris and used the time together to get to know one another.

[From The Daily Mail]

It’s strange that the Mail quotes Tina Brown and Andrew Morton… and not Harry himself? Harry wrote, in Spare, about his magical trip to Botswana with Meghan early in their relationship. It was his go-to relationship test, to see if a girlfriend can handle camping out and going without luxury spas and such. Plus, I think he just liked to bring girlfriends to Botswana to meet his other family, Tania and Mike. Why is the Mail recycling these old stories? “Meghan was the fourth girlfriend taken to Botswana!” Okay, and? They’re married with two children, so obviously Meghan was the one who passed the test with flying colors. The fact that Harry was testing Meghan so early in the relationship is what bugs me more than “Meghan was the fourth girlfriend he took to Botswana.” When I read Spare, it dawned on me that Harry tested Meghan many times in their first year and I hate when men pull that sh-t.

Photos courtesy of Netflix’s ‘Harry & Meghan’.