Violet von Westenholz emerges as possible royal matchmaker/Meghan and H...

Violet von Westenholz emerges as possible royal matchmaker/Meghan and  Harry



One of Prince Harry's oldest family friends and the daughter of a British baron has emerged as one of the possible matchmakers who arranged a blind date for the royal with Meghan Markle.



Violet von Westenholz is the daughter of former Olympic skier Baron Piers von Westenholz, who is a close personal friend of the Prince of Wales.



In her role as press relations director for Ralph Lauren, she worked alongside Miss Markle on June 30, days before her blind date with Prince Harry in July 2016.



But other sources say that her Bahrain-born best friend Misha Nonoo, the estranged wife of Harry’s friend, Alexander Gilkes, a pal of William and Harry’s from Eton, organised their blind date last year.



Miss von Westenholz, who was once linked romantically with singer James Blunt, refused to deny whether or not she was the mystery cupid.



She told the Daily Telegraph: 'I might leave that for other people to say [who it is].



'It’s a great story and I am sure they are going to be very happy together. I am just happy they are really happy. They are great together.' 



The 33-year-old even posed for a selfie in a photograph uploaded to Instagram by Suits star Miss Markle following a publicity day at Wimbledon on June 4.



The actress, who at this time is thought to have already been on her first date with the royal, beamed: 'How much more could I adore this gem thank you Violet von Westenholz'.



It is now believed that Miss Markle and Prince Harry enjoyed their first date on some date between July 1 and July 5. judging by the pair's dairies.



The prince returned to the UK from a Battle of the Somme service in Belgium on July 1, while Miss Markle left London and returned to Toronto four days later.



The US actress uploaded a revealing post to Instagram on July 3; a love heart sweet with the caption 'lovehearts in London'.





Miss von Westenholz has been friends with Prince Harry since they were both teenagers, and regularly joined the royal family on skiing trips abroad.



According to the Telegraph, Miss von Westenholz refused to take all the credit for bringing the pair together, with rumblings that other mutual friends played their part.



Meghan's close friend Misha Nonoo, the former wife of Harry’s Etonian buddy Alexander Gilkes, was said to be among the contenders given her royal connections.



Meghan and Harry said that the mystery person - a mutual friend - had set them up and the prince said yesterday he knew she was 'the one' as soon as they met.



In their first interview Harry revealed the couple had just two ‘back-to-back’ dates in London before flying on holiday to Botswana together, Harry’s favourite place in the world, for five days, where they slept out under the stars.

Harry said: ‘We were introduced actually by a mutual friend…it was literally…. through her and then we met once and then twice back-to-back two dates in London, last July.



'We'll protect her privacy yeah,' Prince Harry added.



He went on: ‘And then it was I think about three, maybe four weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana.



‘And we - we camped out with each other under the stars, we spent - she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.’



Meghan said she had only one question for her friend when she suggested the date: ‘Well, is he nice?’



She said: ‘Because I’m from the States you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. And so, while I now understand very clearly there is a global interest there, 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 have one question’ which was, ‘Well, is he nice?’ ‘cos if he wasn’t kind it just didn’t seem like it would make sense and so we went and we had a, met for a drink and I think very quickly into that we said, ‘well what are we doing tomorrow? We should meet again.’



Harry adds’: What are we doing tomorrow? Let’s meet again. And then it was like, right, diaries. We need to get the diaries out and find out how we’re going to make this work, because I was off to Africa for a month, she was working. And we just said right where’s the gap? And the gap happened to be in the perfect place [Botswana].’. 



Miss Markle interrupted: 'We should protect her privacy and not reveal too much of that.





The revelation that the go-between was a woman has led to fervent speculation, as many sources believed Miss Markle's Canadian friend Markus Anderson acted as cupid.



Other candidates include Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh, who is one of Meghan's workout buddies.



The pair spent time at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire last year, with Miss Markle gushing on Instagram: ‘The best afternoon with Millie Mackintosh. So proud of you darling.’



Another contender is fashion designer Misha Nonoo, who split from Alexander Gilkes last year after four years of marriage.