Meghan Markle's First Official Royal Outing Is Sooner Than You Think

Meghan Markle was just announced as a royal-to-be on Monday, and she’ll be making her first official engagement with her fiancé Prince Harry the very same week. Kensington Palace revealed that the two will undertake their first official engagements as a couple in Nottingham on Friday.

Harry is “looking forward to introducing Ms. Markle to a community that has become very special to him,” Kensington Palace said in a tweet. The engaged couple’s first joint engagement will focus around charity and a cause close to Harry’s heart.

The duo will visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair, where they’ll meet with representatives of organizations supporting people living with HIV/AIDS.

“Prince Harry and Ms. Markle will speak to staff and mentors [at Nottingham Academy] about the Full Effect program which is helping prevent young people from turning to violence and crime,” Kensington Palace wrote.

Harry has focused on supporting those with HIV and AIDS throughout his time as a royal, inspired by his mom Princess Diana who championed the cause. Clearly Diana is still very much in the couple’s thoughts as they prepare for a new life together.

“The little diamonds on either side are from my mother’s jewelry collection to make sure that she’s with us on this crazy journey together,” Harry said of Markle’s engagement ring.

“I think everything about Harry’s thoughtfulness is—and the inclusion of that and obviously not being able to meet his mom it’s so important to me to know that she’s a part of this with us,” Markle said.

“And I think in being able to meet his aunts and also like Julia and just different people who were so important to his mom, I’m able to, in some way, know a part of her through them and of course through him,” she added.