London [UK], Nov. 9 : It's official! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in a relationship.

The 32-year-old British Royal heir confirmed, in a statement released by Kensington Palace, that the ' Suits' star is now his girlfriend, leading bookies to slash odds of the pair marrying, reports the Mirror.

Prince Harry also came to the defense of his girlfriend after seeing the "abuse" and "harassment" she has received in the last week.

He took the unusual step of issuing a public plea for her to be left alone insisting a "line had been crossed" with certain media coverage. There were even accusations of racial attacks in some of the commentary about the mixed race 35-year-old star.

"His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment," the statement reads, "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."

"Prince Harry is worried about Ms Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her." it continued, "He has asked for this statement to be issued in the hopes that those in the press who have been driving this story can pause and reflect before any further damage is done."

Prince Harry and Markle reportedly met in London in June after being introduced by his friend, New York fashion designer Misha Nonoo.

Details of their relationship broke as they were spending the Halloween weekend together attending a party in Toronto.(ANI)