Ryan Russillo shared his failed attempt to woo Meghan Markle during a 2014 celebrity flag football game.

Meghan Markle was another man’s muse before he met Prince Harry—and his approach backfired. TV presenter Ryan Russillo, who worked for ESPN sometime in 2016, discussed his failed attempt to seduce Meghan on The Bill Simmons Podcast and said that he failed.

Russillo recalled meeting Meghan in 2014 during a celebrity flag football game held over Super Bowl weekend. At the time, Meghan was gaining fame as the star of the legal drama Suits.

While most eyes were on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models also participating, Russillo found himself intrigued by Meghan.

“We played in a celebrity flag football game together and it was all of the [Sports Illustrated] swimsuit models. So, nobody was really paying any attention to Markle,” Russillo said bluntly, as reported by US Weekly.

“I was like, ‘That’s my lane.’”

TV presenter decided to take a chance by sliding into Meghan’s DMs

“I shot her a DM,” he revealed. “It was a very soft sell… It was, ‘Hey, I know the new season of Suits is coming out if you ever want to come on the show to promote it.’ It was really professional.”

“It was like a gauging of interest,” he admitted. “Like, if I got an emoji back, who knows?”

Unfortunately for Russillo, Meghan’s response was polite but left no room for misinterpretation: “Oh, I don’t know anything about sports, but thanks for the offer.” Russillo described her reaction as “ice cold.”

Years later, Meghan met Prince Harry and started a royal love story. In a 2022 interview with The Cut, she revealed that she and Harry are raising their son Archie with the motto “manners make the man.”