Meeting your beau's family for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. But when those relatives happen to be royal it's probably slightly more daunting.
Prince Harry secretly dated American actress Meghan Markle for five months before the news leaked to the world, but headlines didn't come as a surprise to the couple's families as the most important introductions had already been made.
Royal expert Ashley Pearson detailed the "extraordinary" first meeting Meghan Markle had with the Queen in the Channel 5 documentary, 'Harry & Meghan vs the Monarchy'.
She said: "The meeting went extremely well.
"It actually ran over, which is an extraordinary thing for the way the Queen keeps her schedule.
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“Meghan was warmly welcomed. Here she is – articulate, bright, intelligent, well-spoken, beautiful, elegant — what is not to like?”
Meghan gave her own account of this meeting in the Oprah interview, saying she had met Her Majesty at Royal Lodge - where Prince and Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, have historically been based.
Meghan said she and Harry were going for lunch there and were joined by the Queen, who had been giving a church service in Windsor nearby.
"I remember Harry and I were in the car and he says, 'OK, well my grandmother’s going to be there so you’re going to meet her. I said, 'OK great! I loved my grandmother, I used to take care of my grandmother.' He goes, 'Right, do you know how to curtsy?'"
As it turns out, Meghan had no idea that family really curtsied to the Queen in private.
Meghan said: “I thought genuinely that’s what happens outside, that was part of the fanfare, I didn’t think that’s what happens inside."
"How does one curtsy to the Queen?" Oprah asked. "Deeply, to show respect," Meghan said, "And I learned it very quickly."
Once the curtsey was out of the way, "we just sat there and we chatted, and it was lovely and easy," she said.
Meghan added later that she has always had a good relationship with the sovereign. "The queen has always been wonderful to me," she said.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond also spoke about Meghan's first meeting with Prince Charles, Harry's dad, in the documentary.
She said: "Meeting your in-laws when one is going to be a future king – meeting Prince Charles – must have been quite tough for Meghan, or a little bit daunting.
"But she is a strong woman. She probably marched in there and just got on famously.
"Because she is a woman with lots of opinions, lots of views, and a confident woman.
"Those are the kind of attributes that Charles likes."
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