Valentine's Day is just around the corner and we can already feel all of the love in the air. But as the holiday draws closer, we couldn't help but wonder how some of our favourite royal couples found love.
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Their love stories are just as varied as the general public, with some meeting in the most normal of places including at university, or at a festival, or the old favourite, being set up on a blind date by a friend! Read below to find out how your favourite royal pairs first met up.
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The Prince and Princess of Wales
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince William and Princess Kate met in 2001, whilst the pair were studying at the University of St Andrews. The Princess of Wales was a History of Art student who caught the young royal's attention when she strutted down the catwalk of a fashion show at the academic institution.
Kate is reported to have curtsied to her future husband when they first met, with William responding by spilling a drink on himself. Speaking about their first interaction, the future King stated: "When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her, and I knew there was something I wanted to explore there."
Talking in their engagement interview in 2010, Kate explained: "We moved in together as friends, because we were living together, we lived with a couple of others as well and it sort of blossomed from there really, we just saw more of each other and hung out a bit more and it went from there really."
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex dated for two years before they announced their engagement in November 2017, with the royal couple welcoming their first child, Archie, together in May 2019, and their daughter, Lilibet, in June 2021.
In their engagement interview with the BBC, following the announcement of their plans to wed, Harry revealed that a mutual friend had introduced them in July 2016, with the couple agreeing to a blind date in London.
Meghan went on to explain: "Because I'm from the States, you don't grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. I didn't know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, 'Well is he nice?' Because if he wasn't kind, it just didn't seem like it would make sense."
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The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
© Photo: Getty ImagesHer Majesty and Prince Philip met in 1934 at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (Philip's cousin) and Prince George, Duke of Kent (Elizabeth's uncle), when the Queen was just eight years old.
Five years later, the duo met again at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, exchanging letters after this meeting.
In 1946, Philip asked King George VI for his daughter's hand in marriage, the pair were married the following year.
Following the Queen's death in September 2022, the pair were reunited when the late monarch was buried alongside her husband in the King George VI memorial chapel.
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Zara and Mike Tindall
© Photo: Getty ImagesZara was introduced to rugby player Mike Tindall by her cousin, Prince Harry in 2003, when they were all in Sydney for the Rugby World Cup, with the royal meeting her future husband at the Manly Wharf bar in Sydney.
Speaking to The Daily Mail in 2011, Mike explained: "She was on her gap year and in Australia with friends, Clive (Woodward, the coach) had just told me I was dropped for the semi-final, so I went out for a beer with two others who weren't playing, Martin Corry and Austin Healey. Zara was in the same bar; we got introduced but didn't speak that much. Later on, Austin gave me her number and said, 'She wants you to text her, to say where you're all going out after the final so she can come along.'"
The duo wed in July 2011 at a private wedding at Edinburgh's Canongate Kirk. The couple are now parents to three children - Mia, Lena and Lucas.
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Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrincess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank met in 2010, after being introduced by mutual friends whilst both skiing in Verbier. In an exclusive interview with the couple following their engagement in 2018, Jack explained: "We were skiing which was amazing. Love at first sight." It seems likely that the couple might have crossed paths at some point had it not been skiing, as Jack was the former manager of Mayfair club Mahiki, which is a club adored by royals including Prince William and Prince Harry.
The couple welcomed their first child, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, in February 2021, and are currently expecting their second.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
© Photo: Getty ImagesEdoardo's father Alex met Beatrice's mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, in the Swiss ski resort Verbier in 1972 and the families have been friends for years.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo made their first public appearance at the National Portrait Gallery's 2019 Gala. That same year, they were spotted at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and Edoardo accompanied Beatrice on a family trip. They then made a joint appearance at Lady Gabriella Windsor's May wedding to Thomas Kingston at St. George's Chapel in Windsor.
Edoardo proposed to Beatrice in Italy with a custom-designed engagement ring from British jeweller, Shaun Leane, and their engagement was announced in 2019. The couple tied the knot in a private Windsor wedding during the pandemic in July 2020 and welcomed their first child, Sienna, in September 2021.
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The Earl and Countess of Wessex
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince Edward began dating former PR boss Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1993 after being introduced by a mutual friend several years earlier. After a long-term relationship, the prince popped the question to his girlfriend just before Christmas in 1998, proposing with a three-diamond ring from British royal jeweller Garrard.
The couple finally announced their happy news in January 1999 and were married at St George's Chapel in Windsor on 19 June 1999.
Edward and Sophie are proud parents to Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, born in 2003 and 2007 respectively.
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Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe Queen's only daughter met her second husband, Sir Tim Laurence, when he served as an equerry to Her Majesty.
The couple married on 12 December 1992 at Crathie Parish Church, Ballater, near Balmoral. They reside at Anne's Gloucestershire home, Gatcombe Park.
Queen Letizia and King Felipe
© Photo: Getty ImagesWhen Queen Letizia met her second husband King Felipe in 2002, the well-known journalist was working for Television Espanola on its news channel 24 Horas. The successful television presenter was reporting an environmental catastrophe of an oil tanker that had sank off the coast of Galicia when she met then Prince Felipe who had flown in to offer his support to the communities effected by the oil spill.
The couple announced their shock engagement in November 2003, having secretly dated for a year, marrying the following year.
Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
© Photo: Getty ImagesMary and Frederik married in 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, with the duo meeting just four years earlier in Sydney. The Danish royal's love story began not like a storybook tale, but as a down-to-earth meeting during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The couple met at the Slip Inn pub in Sydney, whilst Frederik was relaxing with the Danish sailing team.
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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe pair met when Daniel Westling became Victoria's personal trainer in 2001. The couple married in 2010, on the exact same day that Victoria's parents wedded in 1976.
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe couple tied the knot in 2001 and are one of Europe's most popular royal couples. The pair met in 1999, at a concert at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, becoming engaged a year later.
Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
© Photo: Getty ImagesMaxima met Willem-Alexander in April 1999 at the Seville Spring Fair in Spain. The King and Queen of the Netherlands later revealed in interviews that the Maxima was unaware of Willem's title when they were first introduced. After their initial meeting at the fair, the couple met again two weeks later in New York where Maxima was working and their relationship blossomed from there.
Prince Christian of Hanover and Alessandra De Osma
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince Christian of Hanover and Alessandra de Osma officially tied the knot in an intimate civil ceremony in 2017, but the couple celebrated officially with a lavish ceremony in Lima in March 2018. The 33-year-old met the beautiful 25-year-old back in 2005, when she was a tour guide during one of the Prince's trips to Peru, but the couple did not start dating until a few years later.
Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe charming Prince and the former reality TV star met during a lunch with friends, with Sofia explaining to Swedish Channel TV 4 in a joint interview with her future husband that their meeting was "love at first sight". Sofia went on to explain that: "The first thing I noticed about Carl Philip was that he seemed very humble" adding, "When I got to know him, I saw that he was incredibly natural, very intelligent and very humble."
The couple are now parents to three sons - Prince Alexander, Prince Gabriel and Prince Julian.
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