PIERS MORGAN Congrats, Harry, my pal Meghan is a keeper

PIERS MORGAN Congrats, Harry, my pal Meghan is a keeper

 Oh thank the Lord!

Prince Harry, long time enfant terrible of the Royal Family, has finally made a sensible decision when it comes to his personal life.

Yes, His Royal ‘Naked Billiards’ Highness is at last settling down and getting married.

I was delighted when I heard the big news today, not least because his bride-to-be Meghan Markle is a friend of mine.

Or rather, she was until she met him, more of which later.

‘When did you know she was the one?’ journalists asked Harry.

‘The very first time we met,’ he replied.

I can believe it, because I first met Meghan Markle the very same week Harry wooed her, and she’s a highly impressive lady.

Our encounter involved a pub, several (for her….) dirty vodka martinis, lots of laughter and fascinating revelation.

By the time we parted, I came away – not that I could have ever guessed it at the time - with a very clear idea of the woman who is now going to be a royal bride. And frankly, I can’t think of a more perfect choice for a Princess than Ms Markle.

‘I’m in London for a week of meetings and Wimbledon,’ read the Twitter Direct Message from Meghan on June 29, 2016. ‘Would love to say Hi!’

‘Fancy a drink in my local pub?’ I suggested.

‘Love to!’ she replied.

On the day, Meghan sent me another message.

‘See you this evening. I may be there a little early because I have a dinner at 8. Looking forward to our pint!’

She added her two phone numbers but warned: ‘They’re both acting up – champagne problems!’

Meghan was at Wimbledon tennis that day (June 29, 2016) to watch our mutual friend Serena Williams.

‘Serena sends her love,’ she said a little later, ‘you’re very popular as it turns out, who knew.’

Suffice it to say, I suspect Harry’s now put her firmly right on that score!

Meghan turned up at my local, the Scarsdale Tavern in Kensington, West London – less than a mile from Kensington Palace, and a place Harry has himself been known to frequent.

She looked every inch the Hollywood superstar – very slim, very leggy, very elegant and impossibly glamorous. She was even wearing the obligatory big black shades beloved of LA thespians.

The landlord Ray, not a man easily impressed or given to raw emotion, was dumbstruck.

‘Blimey,’ he whispered as I ordered the drinks, ‘she’s a stunner - who’s THAT?’

Judging by the eye-popping way the handful of other customers reacted when she glided inside, Ray was speaking for the whole pub.

I explained that Meghan was an actress in Suits, one of my favourite US dramas, about a New York law firm.

We’d gotten to know each other a year earlier after I followed her and some of the other stars of the show on Twitter.

‘Well hello there, thanks for the follow,’ she immediately responded by Direct Message. ‘Big fan of yours!’

We had an amusing discussion about my Suits addiction, which culminated in Meghan offering to send me early links to forthcoming episodes so I could watch them before anyone else.

She did, too.

We regularly exchanged messages over the next few months, usually about shocking new plotlines involving her character, paralegal Rachel.

‘OMG, you’re out of hospital and cheating on Mike with that sleazeball!’ I wrote in August, 2016.

‘Hahahaha,’ she replied. ‘Oh this is when everyone starts to hate Rachel. Brutal. People wanted to kill me. Not Rachel… ME. I never knew there were emojis of knives and guns. Thankfully, Rachel gets back on her pedestal.’

Meghan loved Suits but hated the long hours filming in Toronto, Canada.

‘How are you? Hope all is well?’ she messaged me one morning. ‘We just wrapped filming at 4am so I am the walking dead.’

As the host of Good Morning Britain, which involves 4am alarm calls, I was able to perfectly empathise.

So, to our (strictly platonic, I hasten to add.. ) date in the Scarsdale.

You can tell a lot about a woman by how she behaves in a pub, and I thought Meghan was fabulous; warm, funny, intelligent, and highly entertaining.

She seemed real, too; not one of those phony actress types so prevalent in California.

We discussed her biracial upbringing, highly significant now she will become the first non-white royal bride. ‘My dad’s Caucasian, my mother’s African-American,’ she said, ‘so I’m half-white, half-black. It caused me a lot of confusion when I was young because it’s not easy to be ethnically ambiguous in America. But I learned to embrace being a mixed-race woman.’

She was passionate and knowledgeable about political issues, like US gun violence. ‘I just wish more people in my country would make a stand about it,’ she told me. ‘I’ve enjoyed living in Canada for the past five years, without Rambo & co. People say it’s not the guns but mental illness, to which I say, so then why give mentally ill people legal access to buy guns? It’s staggering. So many needless deaths.’

She also had a h