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During the summer holidays in 1995, teenage girls across America were captivated by the film Clueless – a romantic comedy based on the Jane Austen novel Emma – which tells the poignant story of a spoilt high-school beauty flowering awkwardly into adulthood.

The classic movie would influence an entire generation, giving rise to phrases that have become part of young people's vernacular (such as 'whatever' and 'as if') and starting an enduring fashion trend for plaid miniskirts and white knee socks.

For Meghan, however, who went to see the film shortly before her 14th birthday, it doubtless evokes bitter-sweet memories.

After all, she arrived at the cinema proudly escorted by her first-ever boyfriend, Joshua Silverstein, only to be left alone in the stalls when he stormed out because the action was too slushy for his liking!

Meghan revealed Joshua Silverstein (pictured around the time they shared their first kiss)  was her first boyfriend when interviewed on Larry King, in 2013

The story behind this painful girlhood rite of passage might never have emerged if Meghan had been more discreet when invited to name 'the first boy she had kissed' during an interview with television chat show host Larry King, in 2013.

'Joshua Silverstein!' she exclaimed. 'I was 13, it was, like a summer camp, and I kissed him.' When King asked whether she knew what had become of him, she replied, a touch wistfully, 'No, I don't know what happened to Joshua.'

But now we do. We spoke to 37-year-old Mr Silverstein – now the father of two children, aged ten and five, and working as a stand-up comedian, actor, writer and teacher – in his home city of Los Angeles, where he recounted how the romance unfolded.

He and Meghan first met in the most innocent imaginable manner, at the Agape International Spiritual Center, a huge, ultra-progressive, transdenominational church then based in Santa Monica, where she worshipped regularly with her mother, Doria Ragland. As she and Joshua were both budding performers, they developed a friendship.

Romance blossomed when they attended a theatrical summer camp for young churchgoers. Meghan, who turned 14 on 4 August 1995, was still something of a tomboy, albeit a very pretty one, with wild curly hair and freckles.

Joshua, a handsome and charismatic boy of African-American and Jewish heritage, was more experienced. So, when their lips met for the first time, he says, he knew it was Meghan's first kiss, but it wasn't his. In fact, though it was a eureka moment for her, he can't even recall where that awkward first embrace occurred. 'I don't remember! I couldn't even tell you, man!' he laughs, adding, '[But] I'm glad she remembers it.'

He goes on, 'We were a couple of kids. We dated for the duration of the camp, probably a couple of months. We were just kind of enjoying the spark of it. We were into theatre. We liked acting … you know, we were together every day [of the summer holiday] because of the camp.'

LA comedian Joshua Silverstein (pictured) revealed he and Meghan split up because he didn't want to watch Clueless at the cinema with her 

Though they were inseparable that summer, Joshua says they only went on one proper date outside the confines of the spiritual centre, and it proved catastrophic. That was the one when they went to see Clueless, which had been released in mid-July 1995. Presumably, it was Meghan's idea to watch the film, for with its sugary plot and preponderance of young female actors, it certainly appealed more to girls than boys.

In all events, during the scene where the spoilt rich girl, Cher (played by Alicia Silverstone), kisses aspiring lawyer Josh (Paul Rudd) on a sweeping mansion staircase, Meghan's boyfriend could take no more. 'We split up because I left her during the movie,' he laughed. 'We were watching together with our friends, and I left during the romantic scene because I didn't like the movie, and I was a teenage boy who didn't care. I was 13 or 14 and I didn't want to watch the romance part, so I got up with some of my friends to hang out, and we left. And then, I think the next day, we broke up.'

Joshua is biracial, like Meghan. His mother is African-American and his father Jewish.

He says, 'Meghan didn't appreciate that I left my girlfriend during the kissing scene! I think I just couldn't relate to a bunch of privileged white people in a movie [he might not recall that there are actually also black stars in the film]. So I said, 'I'm going outside.' She wanted to stay, so she watched the rest of it with other friends of ours.'

After they broke up, Joshua says they patched up the spat and remained friends, continuing to see one another at the church. But as they got older they lost touch because they mixed in different circles, and Meghan attended an all-girls Roman Catholic school. However, until about seven years ago he would still see Doria at the church occasionally, and she'd keep him appraised of Meghan's progress.

'She would tell me, Meghan's overseas, or whatever. This was before [she became a star in the legal drama] Suits, and she had been travelling. I think she was modelling. Her mum would say, 'You know, Meg is doing good.' Meghan's mum and my dad are still friends.' Given their family ties, one wonders whether Meghan was being slightly disingenuous in telling Larry King she didn't know what had become of Joshua. Moreover, while his fame can't match hers, he is well known enough to have made regular appearances on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and other TV programmes. 

Meghan (pictured) was a budding performer at her all-girls Roman Catholic high school, Immaculate Heart

Joshua says his fiancée, Cinthya, a photographer, finds it 'hysterical' that he was the first boy to kiss the royal bride-to-be, and he says, 'I think, as long as she's happy, that's great. She's a person marrying a person, and the person she's marrying happens to be a prince.

'Relationships are about being human, so as long as she's found her soulmate, and the person she's with is inspiring her, and loving her for who she is, then good for her.

'I thought very highly of her, I thought she was a kind, sweet person. She was quirky. At the final theatrical performance for the camp we were both in, we all had to do a presentation where we performed monologues as a character we had made up, and I remember hers being a character that was quirky and silly and awkward. So I think she was a typical American girl. I think she was sweet and nice.'

Even at that early age, he said, he and Meghan shared a desire to push conventional social boundaries, 'stripping away the norms' on issues such as gender and race. 'Meghan's heart is in the right place.'

Asked if he had a message for Meghan, he quipped, 'You're welcome, Prince Harry!' Serious again, he added, 'Congratulations is my message. Congratulations and keep smiling!'

Doubtless his summer-school sweetheart will do just that. Just as long as Harry sits through those slushy film scenes.