William waited 9 years to marry Kate. To be certain she was --The one. I can't see Harry rushing any girl down the isle. If Meghan is --The One -- for him I am sure he will take his time getting to know her better. Not 9 years obviously, but a year or two at least. And for that she would have to at least live in the same country as him.
I am sure Harry is mature enough to want to get to know a girl first before marriage. And that can take awhile. Especially when both live very busy lives.
True, but the huge difference is that Kate and William met at university as they were just entering their early twenties. That is extremely young for either of them to have felt "This is the One," although Kate may have felt it moreso than Wills. OTOH, it is possible to feel a deep attraction at a young age, however a life commitment for them was way too early to make. Wills needed time to have fun, and sow a bit of wild oats in order to be sure Kate was the one he couldn't live without.
And so all of that did play out after they graduated from college, and that's why it took 9 years. There was no way that Wills intended to marry in his early to mid-twenties. He even said so publicly. While they were in college, both Wills and Kate had the distinct advantage of being able to develop their relationship mostly in private, due to the strict agreement between media and the Palace to leave Wills alone during his college years. We heard a lot about Wills living off-campus with a group of friends, one of whom was Kate. It was the 'group of friends' that served to provide the cover they needed to get to know each other better, etc.
In Harry's case, he did fall in love with Chelsy at a young age, and I believe they were together off-and-on for about 7 years. I think they had a strong bond, but in retrospect it appears to have been mainly young love and a fun friendship that didn't go further because Chelsy discovered she was absolutely uncomfortable and therefore unsuited to living the life of a royal wife, subjected to endless media scrutiny.
Meghan similarly dated Trevor Engelson for about 7 years prior to marrying. And as fate would have it, they married around the same time that Meghan landed the role in
Suits which was to be filmed in Toronto. So her marriage did not start off auspiciously due to the long distance from L.A., and Meghan's complete change in lifestyle, new experiences and friendships. Her life with Engelson did not stand the test of time and distance, even despite having dated him for 7 years before marrying. That could partly be because Meghan was in her early twenties when they met and she had not had the opportunity to grow as a person and to discover what she truly wanted out of life. Stardom on
Suits and Meghan's adventures in Toronto along with the friendships she developed, set her life on an unexpected course.
Meghan's relationship with Engelson, on the other hand, likely helped her grow as a person so she surely has no regrets, just as Harry surely as no regrets about his former bond with Chelsy. I do not think Harry was that serious about Cressida. Seemingly it was a more casual two-year 'fling.' And here we have some people currently characterizing Harry's connection with Meghan as a 'fling,' despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Oh well, we still have to wait and see how it all develops. But it seems M & H both are at a stage in their lives where they are ready to fully commit and start a family. And they are reportedly in love and very comfortable with each other, and they share mutual interests and goals. So at their respective ages, I tend to feel that an engagement may be announced in late 2017 or early 2018, with a marriage set for sometime in 2018. Meghan will be 37 in August 2018, which is a bit late for planning a first pregnancy. That's why there may be an outside chance that a wedding will happen earliest in April or May of 2018 with a baby arriving around February or March of 2019. I say this because they surely will want to have more than one child (with a bit of time in between each one) if marriage is on the horizon for them.
For all we know, commitments have already been made and tentative scheduling plans set (except for Harry determining when he will surprise Meghan with the actual proposal).