Since Prince Harry confirmed earlier this month that he is indeed dating American actress Meghan Markle, all eyes and ears have been on when the couple will make their first public appearance. Reports predicted that it would be during this past Saturday's rugby match between England and South Africa at Twickenham Stadium in London. Unfortunately, that did not happen as instead of his new girlfriend, it was Princess Charlene of Monaco who watched the game with the prince.

Late last week, photos of Markle walking up to Kensington Palace carrying a couple of Whole Foods bags confirmed The Tig's editor in chief's whereabouts. Given that, a lot of people had been expecting that she would accompany the fifth in line to the British throne to the said event. Unfortunately, that did not happen as Markle had apparently already flown back to Toronto, Canada. The 35-year-old flew across the pond to continue filming the remaining episodes of her hit legal show, "Suits," where she plays Rachel Zane.

There was quite a clamor with regard to Saturday's rugby match as on top of Markle being in England at that time, Prince Harry has also brought his former girlfriends to the event through the years. Instead of Markle, Prince Harry was accompanied by Prince Albert's wife, Princess Charlene, which was quite fitting given that the former Olympic swimmer was raised in South Africa.

Confirmation that Prince William's younger brother and Markle were dating came out when a letter from Kensington Palace called out the invasion of privacy by the media after their relationship landed in the rumor mill.

"[Prince Harry's] girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public —the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments," the statement by the Communication Secretary to Prince Harry reads. "Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commenters will say this is 'the price she has to pay' and that 'this is all part of the game'. He strongly disagrees. This is not a game — it is her life and his."

With the obvious intention of the prince to shield Markle from the hordes of paparazzi hovering over her, it might not be a shock if the two decide to keep their relationship low-key. Everyone will just have to patiently wait until they finally decide to step out in public or appear in an event together.