In the summer of 2016, a young Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle were determined to keep their blossoming romance hidden from the world. The couple, who first met in July of that year, took extraordinary measures to ensure their relationship remained a secret during its early days. However, despite their best efforts, one close call nearly exposed their fledgling love to the public eye.

Prince Harry, who detailed the early stages of their courtship in his candid memoir Spare, recalled one particularly tense moment when their secret was almost revealed. After spending several weeks apart due to a long holiday with friends, the couple arranged a covert meeting at a London hotel. Harry described how he entered the hotel using the freight lift and was swiftly escorted to Meghan’s door by a trusted friend named Vanessa.

“Her arms were reaching for me,” Harry wrote, capturing the intense longing the couple felt after their time apart. “She pulled me inside and thanked her friend in one fluid motion, then slammed the door quickly before anyone saw. I want to say we hung a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door. But I don’t think there was time.”

The next morning, however, their carefully guarded secret was nearly exposed when breakfast was delivered to the room. In a moment of panic, Meghan whispered for Harry to hide in the bathroom, but he opted for a less conventional hiding spot.

“Meg whispered to go into the bathroom but I preferred my hiding place,” Harry revealed. “He didn’t notice the prince-shaped lump under the duvet. He talked and talked, and caught her up on the latest, while I, in my duvet cave, started to run out of air.”

This near-miss was just one of many close calls the couple faced as they navigated the intense scrutiny that came with dating a member of the British royal family. Long before meeting Meghan, Harry had grown weary of the relentless public interest in his love life. Royal biographer Ingrid Seward noted that, unlike his older brother Prince William, who was more conservative in matters of the heart, Harry was eager to commit to the women he loved, making him a frequent target for the tabloids.

“When he took girls out, he was so paranoid about being seen that he would make them sit in the back of the Range Rover under a blanket en route to the restaurant,” Seward explained. This constant pressure was exacerbated by the fact that, as the future king, William’s private life was largely off-limits to the media, leaving Harry to bear the brunt of the public’s fascination with royal romance.

Among Harry’s most serious relationships before Meghan were his romances with Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas. Harry and Chelsy, who dated for seven years, ultimately parted ways due to the overwhelming attention their relationship attracted. In a candid interview with The Times, Chelsy admitted she “couldn’t cope” with the relentless scrutiny.

“It was so full-on: crazy and scary and uncomfortable. I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldn’t cope,” she confessed. “I was trying to be a normal kid and it was horrible.”

Despite the challenges, Harry and Meghan’s determination to protect their relationship paid off. Their love story eventually became public, leading to their engagement in 2017 and marriage in 2018. However, the early days of their romance remain a testament to the lengths they went to in order to shield their relationship from the prying eyes of the world.