Patrick J. Adams has joked his on-screen fiancée Meghan Markle has left him in the wake of her real life engagement to Prince Harry

Now Patrick - who is married to fellow actress Troian Bellisario - has joked that the news came as a shock to him, as he claimed Meghan, who played his wife-to-be Rachel Zane in legal drama ‘Suits’, had left his character Mike Ross in favour of being with the handsome Prince.

Quoting a tweet from Kensington Palace on Twitter, the 36-year-old actor said: “She said she was just going out to get some milk... (sic)”

The message from the Palace read: “The Prince of Wales has announced the engagement of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle.”

Meghan is believed to have filmed her final scenes as Rachel Zane recently, as she is thought to be moving to the UK permanently.

Prince Harry, 33, and Meghan announced their engagement earlier on Monday with a royal statement issued by Harry's father, Prince Charles.

It read: "His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle.

"The wedding will take place in Spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.

"His Royal Highness and Ms. Markle became engaged in London earlier this month.

"Prince Harry has informed The Queen and other close members of The Royal Family.

"Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle's parents.

"The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.”

Patrick’s teasing tweet comes after he previously said he was “super excited” for his co-star, but hoped the "madness" of dating a royal would pass soon.

He said: "I'm super excited for her. As you can imagine, it is a massive deal, obviously, if you hadn't noticed. I didn't wanna get involved. I just wanted to say, 'I love you, I support you, I hope you're happy. You seem really happy'. And if she ever needed anybody to talk to in the madness - because it is madness, it's madness what the world puts somebody through when they're going through this process.

"But if there's anyone in the world who is designed to be able to deal with it and deal with it professionally, it's Meghan Markle. I'm just super excited for her and I hope that all of the whatever, whatever, I don't even know what it is, but all of the madness passes at some point and they can just get down to the business of enjoying each other's company and hopefully not have to worry about this. But I guess being in this situation, it probably goes on forever."