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 In a televised interview on Monday when they
announced their engagement, the couple were coy about the
identity of the "mutual friend" who had brought them together.
"We should protect her privacy and not reveal too much of that,"
said Markle, with Harry adding: "We'll protect her privacy yeah.
But it was - it was literally - it was through her."
On its front page, the Times newspaper declared that it was the
fashion designer Misha Nonoo, who was born in Bahrain and raised
in London.
The paper said her estranged husband is Alexander Gilkes, who
went to the same exclusive school, Eton College, that Harry, 33,
attended, while she is also a close friend of Markle and went on
holiday with her in the summer of 2016.
However, the Daily Telegraph had a different solution. It said
Violet Von Westenholz, who had been friends with Harry since he
was a teenager, was behind the romance.
Westenholz, a PR director for fashion label Ralph Lauren, had
helped organize a publicity day for "Suits" in London in June
last year, the U.S. TV legal drama in which Markle was one of
the cast's stars.
Harry and Markle, 36, began dating the following month.
"I might leave that for other people to say (who the matchmaker
was)," she told the Telegraph. "It's a great love story and I am
sure they are going to be very happy together."
News of the engagement has drawn huge global interest thanks to
Harry's royal status and the Hollywood sparkle added by his
wife-to-be.
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 The couple announced on Tuesday they would wed
in March next year at St George's Chapel in the grounds of
Windsor Castle, which has been the family home of British kings
and queens for almost 1,000 years. [L8N1NY5BK]
On Friday, the couple will take part in their first official
royal engagement as a couple in the central English city of
Nottingham, visiting charities working to prevent HIV/AIDS and
youth crime.
While the couple's nuptials have dominated the news
in Britain, a poll suggested more than a half of Britons were fairly
non-plussed. A YouGov survey for the Times found 39 percent were
pleased by the engagement, four percent disappointed and 52 percent
indifferent.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail newspaper's front page was dedicated to a
21-year-old picture of Markle sitting on railings with friend Ninaki
Priddy outside Buckingham Palace, one of her future in-laws' London
homes.
"I'm not shocked at all. She was always fascinated by the royal
family," Priddy was quoted by the paper as saying. "It's like she
has been planning this all her life. She gets exactly what she wants
and Harry has fallen for her play."
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and
Raissa Kasolowsky)
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