Way To Go, Harry! Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Officially Engaged

I've always rather liked Princes William and Harry.

Maybe it's the influence of their mother, the late Diana, that made the boys so endearing. She insisted on giving the boys as much of a "normal" life as she could in spite of the pressures of being royal, and mercifully, their father Prince Charles saw the wisdom in that. There's always been something about Prince Harry, though, that made me smile in particular, and now that he's engaged to American actress Meghan Markle, I couldn't be happier for him.

Of course, it's not as though I actually know the man, but I've always felt as though he would be a great guy to sit and have a couple of beers in a pub with after a long day at work. While both William and Harry have very definitely tried to forge their own path as the new generation of royals, it's Harry that has had much more of an Everyman sort of appeal than his older brother. His social missteps have been far more public, but he has also in many respects had the opportunity to live a slightly more "normal" life than William, if for no other reason that he's always been the "spare"—unlikely to immediately ascend to the throne in the near future, or as William's children get older. He's now fifth in line to the throne, though that will change as soon as Princess Kate gives birth to the couple's third child. As a result, in spite of his royal duties, he's been cut a fair bit more slack than William.

Now that he's engaged to Markle, I'm honestly looking forward to the look of happiness on his face when he sees her for the first time, walking down the aisle during their wedding ceremony. I can imagine pictures of him roughhousing with any future children they might have, because he just seems like he'd be that sort of dad. Sure, the entire family will be under the microscope, if for no other reason than Harry is Diana's son, and we know how much attention Diana herself generated.

Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to seeing Princes William and Harry in a couple of years, when Harry and Meghan Markle may have started a family, and imagining what those family get-togethers might look like. It strikes me that if one were to strip away all the royal responsibility and protocol, Princes William and Harry would just be a pair of tight-knit brothers, enjoying family barbeques and beer while their kids played together and their wives shaking their heads affectionately if they tried as adults some of the things they undoubtedly tried as youngsters with each other. Imagine William and Harry wrestling on the ground while Kate and Markle looked on—now that would be something.

For all I know, these sorts of get-togethers between William's household and now Harry's occur already, but it is sort of fun to see what the princes might be like as "regular" individuals. Certainly, Harry has had a greater opportunity for that relatively normal upbringing, largely due to his role in the greater royal scheme of things. He will no doubt be easing Meghan Markle into her new responsibilities as a member of the Royal Family, which is no doubt a daunting place to find oneself, but who better than Prince Harry—known for his fun-loving persona over the years—to face these responsibilities with an equal mix of seriousness and humor?

In many ways, I hope that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would just have the opportunity to run off and elope, away from the cameras and the media attention. It would be lovely if the two of them could just carve out that moment, just for them, but regardless of how the duo gets married, it's certain that Prince Harry's mother Diana will be smiling at how happy her boys are.