Prince Harry and Meghan wins an army of starstruck new young fans as they make their first official engagement today (Details, pics)

Meghan Markle made her first official engagement with Prince Harry look easy today as she won an army of starstruck new fans including one who said: 'She's beautiful. Only a prince can have a lady like that!'

The royal couple shared countless handshakes, high-fives, hugs and took presents including bags of Haribo sweets - Harry's favourites - from crowds five-deep chanting their names in Nottingham today.

Meghan looked happy and relaxed throughout, chatting about their wedding at Windsor Castle next year and quitting the hit show Suits while thanking people for 'braving the cold to see us' and 'making us feel so welcome'.

'I'm so happy,' she said at one point, adding: 'It's just such a thrill to be here. I can't believe it'. During the walkabout she introduced herself to people with a cheery: 'Hi, I'm Meghan'.

Star-struck young footballer Ale Araphate, 21, asked loudly: 'Is that Prince Harry’s wife?' as the couple approached at Nottingham arts centre and said: 'She is beautiful. Only a prince can have a lady like that!'

The star, wearing a £585 coat and carrying a £455 handbag, kept resting her hand on Harry's back in a repeated loving and reassuring gesture and for long periods clutched his arm and held his hand.

Mr Araphate, 21, the captain of a football team for Champions For Change, a project which uses football to reach African communities in the Midlands to talk about HIV/Aids, said the 36-year-old American actress was 'beautiful'.

If Mr Araphate was more outspoken than most of the guests at the charity event, he did no more than reflect the mood at the Nottingham arts centre where the couple met a group of charities involved in HIV/Aids - that Ms Markle passed her royal initiation test with flying colours.

Sandra Spence, centre manager for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: 'They were very relaxed. They fed off each other, which is unusual in a couple but nice to see. It was refreshing to see two people who actually gelled, as opposed to two people who needed to be together.'

Her colleague Liz Waters, a health promotion specialist for MSM (Men who have sex with men), said: 'They have a lovely glow about them.'

Chris O'Hanlon, who is a peer mentor for Positively UK, a charity which helps people newly diagnosed with HIV, talked to them about his own diagnosis and the importance of fitness in dealing with HIV.

'I spoke to Meghan about my passion for yoga,' said Mr O'Hanlon, 40, a clinical hypnotherapist from Luton. 'I said, 'You are a big yogi and love your yoga.' She said, 'Absolutely, I love incorporating it into my life, it is something I have always done.'

He said the couple were 'so natural' together. 'They are very personable. It is very easy to talk to them because they are so open. They have a very jokey attitude. You worry that you have to be 'They seem amazingly comfortable together. You can see that it's a perfect match.

'This may have been her first official engagement, but she was a complete natural at it. She was incredibly observant about what we were talking about, and very interested. She picked up on quite a few things that I was saying, particularly in terms of my own diagnosis. She was very empathetic.

Ms Markle also exhibited a key trait that will stand her in good stead as a member of the royal family: she clearly loves children.

As she met Lorraine Dube, 29, a volunteer with the African Institute for Social Development, and her son Ezekiel Wong, two, Ms Markle tried valiantly to coax him out of his shyness, stroking his arm and chatting to him.

'She is absolutely lovely,' said Ms Dube. 'You can tell that she loves kids. Ezekiel was very shy. She was trying to get him to say something. In the end he said thank you as she walked off, which I thought was really cute. She said he was a cute little boy.'

As she left, she passed another small child in their mother's arms, reached out and said: 'So sweet!'

As they walked round the room in Nottingham Contemporary, Ms Markle stuck closely to Harry's side, but never appeared nervous or shy.

While she regularly looked up at him, she was also not backward in coming forward with questions of her own, picking up on what people said to her.

One of the people they met was Siobhan Lanigan, the chief executive of The Food Chain, a charity which gives nutritional advice to people with HIV.