Prince Harry asked Meghan Markle if she knew how to curtsy moments before she met the Queen

• Meghan Markle recalled her impromptu first meeting with the Queen in her CBS interview with Oprah.
• On the drive there, Prince Harry asked Markle if she knew how to curtsy.
• He helped her practice and Markle apparently did a "very deep curtsy" on meeting the Queen.

Prince Harry asked Meghan Markle if she knew how to curtsy before she met the Queen - and when she didn't, he helped her practice moments before the introduction.

In the couple's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on CBS on Sunday, Markle recalled meeting the Queen following a church service in Windsor. They met at the Royal Lodge, the residence of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York.

"I remember Harry and I were in the car, and he says, 'OK, my grandmother is there so we're going to meet her,'" she said. "And I said, 'Oh great, I love grandmas.' [...] 'But, right, do you know how to curtsy?'"

Markle was shocked.

"I thought, genuinely, that was part of what happens outside," she said. "I thought that was part of the fanfare. I didn't think that's what happens inside, and I said, 'It's your grandmother.' He goes, 'It's the Queen.'"

"That was really the first moment that the penny dropped that this wasn't easy," she added.

So moments before walking in to meet the Queen, Markle practiced curtsying with help from Harry and the Duchess of York, who came out to meet them.

"I learned it very quickly," Markle said, laughing. "Right in front of the house, we just practiced and then walked in. [...] I met her and, apparently, I did a very deep curtsy."

"Then we just sat there, and we chatted, and it was lovely and easy," she added.

While Markle didn't say when the meeting took place, she said they met after the Queen attended a church service in Windsor. The couple was seen publicly with the Queen for the first time in December 2017, a month after they announced their engagement.

Markle told the BBC at the time of their engagement: "It's incredible to be able to meet [the Queen] through his lens, not just with his honor and respect for her as the Monarch, but the love that he has for her as his grandmother."

The two-hour TV event on on Sunday, "Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special," was Prince Harry and Markle's first sit-down interview since they stepped down as senior royals in January 2020.