The Royal Wedding is sports. Harry and Meghan’s relationship proves it

Harry, Prince of Wales, and Meghan Markle, previous Suits standout and future Duchess, had about as much of a whirlwind romance as you can have when one half of the couple is a prince in line for the throne (even if he’ll probably never sit on it).

They met, went public, got engaged, and are getting married all within two years. (That sound you hear is my mother saying “See, it can be done that fast!”) By all accounts, they look very much in love and have bonded over many mutual interests. But along the way, some of their most notable moments had to do with sports.

Herein, some of the most high profile and under the radar sports moments from this royal romance. Which is definitely sports.

As noted, this relationship was pretty compact. The news of it breaking was mostly anticlimactic, with it simply leaking rather than being broken wide open with paparazzi catching a huge private moment or the pair being able to step out as a couple on their own volition.

Their public debut as a couple, then, was huge. And it came at a high-profile sporting event close to Harry’s heart. Prince William is the President of the Football Association and presents the FA Cup trophy every year, Kate is Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club and therefore always shows up to Wimbledon for a few days each fortnight. The queen, notoriously, appreciates her some horse racing. But Harry created the Invictus Games himself — a sporting event for wounded armed services personnel.

Thus, Harry having Meghan escort him to the Invictus Games last September in Toronto (her Suits filming location) sent a message of how serious the relationship was by that point. It helped that they looked super adorable watching wheelchair tennis together, too. Sports dates: good enough for royal relationships, good enough for your relationship.

The pair’s other major Invictus Games-related outing came just in April, when they stepped out to the UK team trials and watched wheelchair volleyball together. As this was after their engagement announcement and only a few weeks from the wedding, the scrutiny of their relationship was much higher than their first sports-watching jaunt. During this appearance, they also wore matching Invictus polos. Which is the first (and probably last) time matching polos have ever looked remotely attractive on a couple.

While it’s true that their first official appearance was the well-coordinated Invictus Games, one of their first “oh, wow, they’re for real a couple and this is really happening” appearances was all the way back in May 2017 at a polo match.

Canoodling at polo matches is basically the “quarterback kissing his cheerleader girlfriend” move of the royal family. One of the most enduring early photos from Prince Charles and Camilla’s relationship was at a polo match, and Harry and Meghan’s makeout session came before a charity polo match in Ascot. As far as places to get caught kissing go, you could do worse.

Marrying into the royal family means you can’t have political opinions, or even allude to having political opinions, in public. But it doesn’t mean you can get out of choosing sides in baseball rivalries. During a trip to Chicago to complete a visa application before her wedding, Markle wore a White Sox hat at the airport.

The White Sox had their fun with it, but The Firm probably hopes this will be her last brush with any sort of choosing-sides controversy now that she’s a representative of the crown. It’s not like she’ll be stepping out at Kensington Palace wearing any baseball caps anyway.

Red Sox MVP candidate Mookie Betts and Meghan Markle are allegedly related via both of their great-great-grandfathers who lived in Alabama around 150 years ago. The two men aren’t confirmed to be related, but Betts is enjoying the possible connection and even joked that he’d like to meet Markle when the Red Sox and Yankees play in London next spring.

Is there anything more sports than having food and ice cream trucks at your otherwise very posh wedding reception? Short of a rugby match actually breaking out between Harry’s friends? Probably not.