Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Life Milestones Pictures

1980s: Harry

Born in 1984, Harry split his early childhood between Kensington Palace in London and Highgrove House in the Gloucestershire countryside. He was obsessed with the army from a young age and loved being outdoors, where he learned early to ride on Shetland Ponies Smokey and Trigger, played with the family dogs, and had his own tree house. He followed older brother Prince William to a local nursery in Kensington and then to elementary school around the corner from the palace.

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1980s: Meghan

Meghan was born in 1981 and was raised in Los Angeles by her African-American mother, Doria, who is a yoga instructor and social worker, and her Emmy-award winning cinematographer father, Thomas Markle, who is of Dutch and Irish descent. Meghan wrote an essay for Elle magazine in 2015 which described her experiences of growing up biracial and the way her parents taught by example, recalling, "When I was about seven, I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls . . . This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls. I don't remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one." She went on to explain how her father created a special Christmas present for her, and she found herself unwrapping "a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each color. My dad had taken the sets apart and customized my family."

Meghan's parents separated when she was two, but she told Vanity Fair magazine earlier this year, "We would still take vacations together. My dad would come on Sundays to drop me off, and we'd watch Jeopardy! eating dinner on TV trays, the three of us . . . . We were still so close-knit."

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Early 90's: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Princess Diana Archive

At the age of 8, Harry was old enough to understand both the privilege and responsibility of being a part of the royal family. He went on luxury holidays to Lech ski resort in the Austrian Alps and the Caribbean island of Necker, but his parents were also educating him on the work that they did; his mother, Princess Diana, was especially transparent about the time she spent with the HIV/AIDS community and with the homeless.

Harry went away to boarding school in September 1992, and three months later, Diana drove to the school to tell William and Harry that she and their father, Prince Charles, were separating.

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Early 1990s: Meghan

When Meghan was just 11 years old, she already had her eye on the important issues and revealed years later that she called out dishwashing liquid producer Proctor and Gamble for its advertising tagline "Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans." She wrote them a letter flagging up the sexism in the ad, and a month later, the slogan was changed to read, "People all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans."

Meghan told Vanity Fair that she believed her awareness of social issues began around this age and was triggered by the South Central race riots of 1992.

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Late 1990s: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Anwar Hussein

Harry's world changed forever when just before his 13th birthday, his mother died in a car crash. He would be dealing with the repercussions over the next two decades as he bottled up his grief before seeking out counseling in his late 20s. In the same year his father, Prince Charles, took him to Africa for the first time, and this was a fateful trip, as Harry fell in love with the continent that would become his second home.

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Early 2000s: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Anwar Hussein

As Harry increasingly found himself in the headlines for his teenage partying, he left school at the age of 18 and headed off for the first part of his gap year, working as a farmhand in Queensland, Australia. In 2002, he was dealing with an especially difficult year due to the loss of his great-grandmother the Queen Mother, his Great Aunt Princess Margaret, and his close school friend Henry van Straubenzee, who passed away in a car accident.

Years later, one of Harry's closest friends is Henry's older brother Thomas, and he is also patron of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund.

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Early 2000s: Meghan

Image Source: Backgrid

Meghan was studying at Northwestern University, where she met her best friend (and potential bridesmaid) Lindsay Roth and was double-majoring in theater and international relations. Meghan was enjoying exploring both sides of her studies, undertaking work experience for the US Embassy in Buenos Aires and landing her first acting role in an episode of General Hospital.

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2004: Harry

Image Source: Getty / JEWEL SAMAD

In 2004, Harry continued to work and travel as part of his gap year, making a life-changing trip to the small African country of Lesotho for the first time, which later led to him setting up his charity Sentebale.

He also experienced his first big love when he met and began a seven-year, on-off relationship with Chelsy Davy.

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2004: Meghan

Image Source: Getty / Amanda Edwards

Having graduated from Northwestern, Meghan was focusing on her acting career and appeared in an episode of the TV show Century City; however, she found that her mixed-race ethnicity caused something of a problem for casting directors, something she recalled in her Elle piece.

"Being 'ethnically ambiguous,' as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role . . . Sadly, it didn't matter: I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job," she wrote. Meghan also met film producer Trevor Engelson, and they began a nine-year relationship.

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2008: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA

Having completed an officer-training course at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Harry was working full-time in the armed forces, and in 2008, he served in Afghanistan for the first time. His firsthand experience of war — along with its resultant injuries and fatalities — helped shape his drive to support injured veterans.

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2008: Meghan

Image Source: Getty / Amy Tierney

At the same time, Meghan was finding more success in her acting career, popping up in The War at Home and CSI:NY as well as a making a saucy appearance on 90210. She had also been a briefcase model on Deal or No Deal from 2006 to 2007.

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2010: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Chris Jackson

The year 2010 was a big one for Harry. Not only did he complete his helicopter training and receive his wings, but he also undertook his first overseas tour to Africa with Prince William and he and his brother also set up their charity The Royal Foundation. For most of the year, he was still involved with Chelsy Davy.

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2010: Meghan

Image Source: Getty / Charley Gallay

For Meghan, 2010 was a big year too. Not only did she appear in movies Get Him to the Greek with Jonah Hill and Remember Me with Robert Pattinson, but on the personal side, she got engaged to Trevor Engelson.

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2011: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Dan Kitwood

Harry acted as best man at his brother Prince William's wedding in the Spring, and shortly afterward, he and Chelsy Davy parted ways for good. In this year, though, Harry's attentions were turned to an Arctic charity walk and helicopter training in California.

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2011: Meghan

Image Source: Everett Collection

Meghan landed the role of Rachel Zane in Suits in 2011, which meant uprooting her LA life and moving to Toronto. The move was a very positive one for her and marked the beginning of seven years as a key member of the Suits cast.

Meghan's eyes were also likely on William and Kate's wedding, as she was planning her own big day. She married Trevor Engelson in Jamaica that September. She also had a small role in the movie Horrible Bosses with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.

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2013: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Pool

Harry spent the year with new girlfriend Cressida Bonas and settled into splitting his time between royal duties — such as his Spring tour of North America — and his army commitments, which included completing his second tour of Afghanistan.

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2013: Meghan

Image Source: Getty / Mike McGregor

There was sadness for Meghan in 2013 when she separated from her husband of two years, but she focused her attention on shooting season three of Suits and developing her social conscience by exploring humanitarian work.

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2014: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Karwai Tang

In 2014, Harry set up the first Invictus Games, which were held in London in September. It was such a success that it has since been held in Miami in 2016 and Toronto in 2017, and will be held in Sydney, Australia, in 2018. On a personal note, Harry split with his girlfriend of two years, Cressida Bonas.

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2014: Meghan

Image Source: Getty / Bennett Raglin

Meghan cast her net in many different directions, launching her lifestyle website The Tig as well as serving as a counselor at the One Young World conference in Dublin and visiting the troops in Afghanistan — just one month after Prince Harry visited. Meghan also started dating Chef Cory Vitiello.

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2016: Harry

Image Source: Getty / Chris Jackson

In the year that Harry and Meghan met, Harry was in deep Invictus mode. Not only did he attend the Miami Invictus Games, but he also made a flying visit to Toronto to promote the games that would be held there a year later. He filled his busy year by touring Nepal in the Spring and spending his Summer working on conservation projects in Africa and ended the year with a tour of the Caribbean.

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2016: Meghan

Meghan, too, was focusing on her philanthropy in 2016, and in the Spring she went to Rwanda, with the charity World Vision Canada. She was also shooting season seven of Suits and worked on a clothing range for Reitmans. She split with her boyfriend of two years in the Spring, leaving an opportunity for romance to bloom when she met a certain red-headed prince.

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