Since striking up their romance, Halloween has been a holiday that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have always been keen to celebrate together.

Even back in 2016, just months into their relationship, they were together for the big day, but it seems it ended on a sour note after the day also conicided with a ‘devastating’ phone call. During their first Hallowee n as a couple, they spent it with Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in Toronto, when they all went to the city’s Soho House for an Apolcapyse-themed bash. Pictures shown during the Sussexes Netflix docuseries revealed the foursomes’ costumes that night, including the Mad Max one Harry wore, which was borrowed from the actor Tom Hardy.

However, the “devastating” phone call they received while they were at a Halloween party during their dating days changed their lives forever – and left them worried.

It came in 2016 when Harry and Meghan were still keeping their relationship under wraps and they were dividing their time between London and Toronto – where Meghan filmed Suits. As their relationship grew stronger, the couple started braving the outside world more on their dates – and when it came to Halloween, they both knew they wanted to go out and celebrate so came up with a plan.

Harry, Meghan and Princess Eugenie before heading to a Halloween party in 2016 ( 
Image:
Netflix)

In the biography, Finding Freedom, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand say the couple was having the “perfect” evening at Soho, where a Halloween party was taking place. They write: “They especially didn’t feel like spending Halloween weekend in hiding, as there was much to celebrate. Some four months into their relationship, they were madly in love and eager to take part in the fun of one of their favourite holidays. The evening of October 29, with Harry in town, the couple decided to go to a big costume party being thrown at Soho House in Toronto.”

A newspaper had found out about their relationship and was going to go live with a story the following day. The authors write: “A cocktail or so into the party, they were both feeling relaxed, absorbing the Halloween spirit. It was possibly the perfect night out – until they received a call from one of Harry’s aides at Kensington Palace. It wasn’t good news.”Harry also writes about the incident in his own memoir Spare, saying that “everything was rendered moot” the day after the party when news of their relationship broke. He explains: “Well, we said, staring anxiously at our phones, it was going to happen eventually. In fact, we’d had a heads-up that it was likely to happen that day. We’d been tipped, before heading off to the Halloween Apocalypse, that another apocalypse might be coming. More proof that the universe had a wicked sense of humour.”

But despite the memories, Halloween still remains a special celebration for the couple, especially now they’ve welcomed children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The Duchess of Sussex revealed during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show how the children wore costumes for the holiday. Speaking back in 2021, Meghan said: “We were home and we saw you guys, which was great. But no, we wanted to do something fun for the kids and then the kids were just not into it at all. Archie was a dinosaur for maybe five minutes. Not even five minutes.”

Ellen then told how Harry persuaded Archie, then two, to put his dinosaur costume on, saying: “Finally Harry talked him into putting the head on. But Lili was a skunk… it was so cute.” Meghan replied: “She was a little skunk. Like Flower from Bambi.”