A young woman said she has been ridiculed “for years” after going on a reality TV show to marry Prince Harry.

Having applied to be on a show called Dream Date, Meghan Jones found herself whisked away with 11 other Americans and sent to Englefield House, 

in the Berkshire Countryside to star in I Wanna Marry “Harry”. There she was introduced to who she believed was the Duke of Sussex.

In actual fact, the 12 girls were introduced to Matthew Hicks, a man experts believed had a 99% match to Harry. Matthew was in fact an environmental consultant with dyed red hair.

The efforts to deceive the girls started early, with Englefield having been used as a stand-in for the Sandringham Estate in The Crown on Netflix. 

And on the opening night, with the girls enjoying dinner, Matthew was brought in by helicopter, with his butler referring to him as sir.

In a trailer at the time, Matthew said: “I have to convince them to like me as Prince Harry, but the goal is for them to like me for who I am. This is my chance to find a girl who I connect with.”

The show saw Matthew whisked away at one point because of a “security incident,” a move dubbed by one girl as “not for show” and pictures of Harry and older brother Prince William dotted around the house. Although Matthew’s face was photoshopped over the Duke of Sussex.

Fake paparazzi at one point disrupted a group date, further making the girls believe they were dating the young prince. Meghan, now aged 35, originally says she believed the girls would be dating a footballer.

Speaking to WHO magazine, she said: “People thought how can these dumb Americans fall for it, but it was a constant mind manipulation. It was like being in a beautiful prison, or a cult with the producers controlling everything.”

Meghan says girls would be sent home if they started to question whether Matthew was the real Harry. For years afterwards the girls were ridiculed for thinking Harry would fall in love with an American.

Of course, in 2016, two years after I Wanna Marry “Harry” aired, he met Meghan Markle, a then Suits actress. The pair wed in 2018. Meghan said: “It’s ironic how he ended up with a Meghan, it felt a little bit vindicating.”

Luckily for Meghan, she did get her own fairy-tale ending, marrying husband Walker Young in 2019. Meanwhile I Wanna Marry “Harry”‘s eventual winner Kimberly Birch has previously admitted she realised Matthew wasn’t the real Harry when the show was down to the final three.

She says she saw a Prince Harry mask on a stick and realised it wasn’t Matthew, but agreed to continue filming anyway. Writing in Business Insider, she said: “I can’t even blame viewers for thinking we were a bunch of idiots. I’d think the same thing watching it — people can only go off of what they see on TV.”

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Source: Los Angeles Times