Prince Harry has revealed that he first laid eyes on his future wife Meghan Markle not on the hit TV show Suits, but rather on a friend's Instagram account back in 2016, and was instantly captivated by her beauty.

In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex, now 44, described how he was casually "scrolling through Instagram" at Kensington Palace's Nottingham Cottage on July 1, 2016, when a video of his childhood friend Violet von Westenholz sitting alongside a mystery woman caught his attention, reports the Daily Mail.

Recalling the moment he first glimpsed his future bride, Harry wrote: "They were playing with a new app that put silly filters on your photos. Violet and the woman had dog ears, dog noses, long red dog tongues hanging out. Despite the canine cartoon overlay, I sat up straighter. This woman with Violet... my God."

The smitten prince proceeded to watch the video "several times," admitting: "I'd never seen anyone so beautiful. She believed life was one grand adventure. I could see that. What a privilege it would be, I thought to join her on that journey. In that moment I felt there might be only one face for me."

Desperate to meet the woman who had captured his heart, Harry fired off an urgent message to Violet, asking to be introduced to Meghan. Violet replied almost instantly, revealing that while "six other guys" had asked about the actress, she was happy to "connect" the pair via Instagram.

Soon after, Harry received a message from Meghan herself, complimenting him on the "beautiful photographs" he had shared from his travels to Africa. The pair quickly exchanged numbers and began a flurry of back-and-forth texting that left Harry's thumbs "cramping" as he tried to keep up.

Writing in Spare, Harry confessed that when he visited the home of English entrepreneur Sir Keith Mills for dinner shortly after, he was texting Meghan "throughout the long drive and up the stairs into his guestroom."

"I locked the door and remained holed up, texting. I sat on my bed texting like a teenager until it was time to have dinner with Sir Keith and his family. Then, after dessert, I quickly returned to the guestroom and resumed texting," he wrote.

Despite their seemingly different worlds, Harry found their contrasts "organic" and "energising," and wasted no time asking Meghan on a date before she was due to fly back home to Canada, where Suits was filmed.

Meghan suggested they meet for drinks at Soho House, "her headquarters whenever she came to London," and booked a table for them at the exclusive member's club on July 3, 2016. However, Harry ended up being 30 minutes late due to bad traffic.

After a bumpy start, the pair fell into an easy conversation, with Prince Harry describing Meghan as "heart-attack beautiful." Their date ended when Meghan had to rush off for her dinner plans, but they agreed to a second date over FaceTime later that evening.

Following another successful date at Soho House, Harry took their whirlwind romance to the next level, inviting Meghan on a week-long safari in Botswana. It was there, during what was technically their third date, that the two fell in love.

During their engagement interview with the BBC's Mishal Husain in November 2017, Harry revealed that he had had "no idea" about Meghan's stint on Suits, telling the broadcaster: "I had never even heard about her until this friend said 'Meghan Markle'. I was like 'right, okay, give me a bit of background!'"

Meghan also claimed that she was relatively unfamiliar with the prince, confessing: "I didn't know much about him and so the only thing that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was - I had one question. I said, 'Well, is he nice?'"

From a chance Instagram sighting to a fairytale wedding watched by millions around the world, Harry and Meghan's love story is one for the ages - even if their royal journey ultimately took an unexpected turn.