If Meghan's life isn't perfect for a screenplay, no one's is. She grew up around Hollywood sets,
became a star in her own right, and married into British royalty. Then she quit the crown
for a shot at true happiness. Here is a look at her life from toddler to tiara.
As a toddler, an adorable, curly-haired Meghan lived with her father,
Thomas Markle, who worked on Hollywood TV sets, and her mother, Doria Ragland,
in Woodland Hills, California. They divorced when she was 6, according to Inside Edition.
Meghan's signature curly locks reflected her bi-racial heritage. Her parents' background
shaped her identity in a way that was sometimes confusing. In an essay for Elle, she wrote,
"Being biracial paints a blurred line that is equal parts staggering and illuminating."
Growing up, Meghan didn't see many people that looked like her. According to her, Woodland
Hills was far from "diverse." Her mother was often mistaken for her nanny, and by middle school, the
pressure to "choose" a race was further compounded when she had to fill out a census. She explained,
"I didn't tick a box. I left my identity blank - a question mark,
an absolute incomplete - much like how I felt."
Fortunately, Meghan's dad came through with some sage advice, telling his daughter,
"If that happens again, you draw your own box."
From an early age, Meghan had an opinion worth hearing - and by the time she was 12,
she had already taken her wisdom to the national stage.
That year, she was interviewed along with some classmates on Nickelodeon's Nick News.
They were tasked with giving their take on the imagery in commercials,
which were stereotypical scenes of women doing housework. Meghan didn't hold
back - she admitted that she was tired of the patriarchal roles in the commercials. She said,
"I don't think it's right for kids to grow up thinking these things,
that just Mom does everything."
And she didn't stop there. Meghan wrote a letter to Procter & Gamble — the creators
of the commercial - asking the company to change its dishwashing commercial.
Her suggestion was for the line:
"Women are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear."
She insisted that they trade the word "women" to the word "people."
Procter & Gamble took her advice and changed it.
"People are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear."
By the time Meghan was 25 years old, she had some success in acting,
but she was still trying to make ends meet while pursuing her dream. From 2006 to 2007
she worked as a "briefcase beauty" on the game show Deal or No Deal. Although Meghan looked
great in her role, she told Esquire the job was far from glamorous. She explained,
"Definitely working on Deal or No Deal was a learning experience,
and it helped me to understand what I would rather be doing. If that's a
way for me to gloss over that subject, then I will happily shift gears into something else."
One woman who worked with Meghan on Deal
or No Deal as a fellow "briefcase beauty" told Gold Coast Bulletin,
"I remember her [Meghan] being very focused on her acting career."
By 2011, the pilot for Suits got picked up. Meghan had one of the main roles as Rachel,
a smart paralegal who was the main character's love interest.
When the USA series became a hit, Meghan was actually surprised. In 2016, she told Glamour,
"I've done so many pilots that have never saw the light of day
and we didn't know what Suits was going to become at the time."
On the red carpet, she departed from Rachel's office looks,
while still keeping it simple - like at the multiple 2012 events she attended
for the USA Network. Speaking about her fashion preferences, Meghan told Glamour,
"I don't tend to go with things that are ornate - just beautifully
made pieces and some classic jewelry. Let the work speak for itself. I love that."
Even though she was far from her days as a struggling actress at this point,
she didn't overdo it on the red carpet. Instead, she stayed true to her "California-cool" roots.
2011 was a big year for a 30 year-old Meghan. Not only did Suits make its debut,
but she also married actor and producer Trevor Engelson. By
this time, Meghan was wearing her hair in a warm-brown hue and her skin was glowing.
According to Us Weekly, Meghan and Engelson were together for seven years before getting
married in Jamaica. The wedding was relatively small, with only 102 people in attendance.
But by 2013, they divorced almost as quietly as they got married;
neither released any official statements explaining why they broke up. According
to The Sun, the divorce papers cited the always vague "irreconcilable differences."
In Andrew Morton's biography of Meghan, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess,
Morton claims that she was the one who ended things. A source reportedly told him,
"The marriage ended so abruptly that Meghan sent
her wedding and engagement rings back to Trevor by registered post."
Another source reportedly told the author that Markle's decision came,
quote, "totally out of the blue."
In July of 2016, Meghan met Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. By this time Meghan was 35 years old,
and considered a successful actress for her work in Suits. At this point she swapped her
bronze hair for a darker hue. It would take nearly a year for them to make their first
official public appearance together, at The Invictus Games in Toronto in September 2017.
Meghan and Prince Harry owe their meeting to a mutual friend that set them up on a blind date.
Meghan told the BBC she only had one question for her friend, asking if he was "nice." Prince Harry
says he had never heard of Meghan before, but he was smitten instantly. He explained,
"I was beautifully surprised when I [...] walked into that room and saw her.
There she was sitting there, I was like, OK, well, I'm really gonna have to up my game!"
The pair liked each other so much that they scheduled a
second date before their first date was even over.
Sixteen months after they started dating, Meghan and Prince Harry got engaged in November of 2017.
The world was intrigued by the haste in their engagement,
but the couple wasn't fazed. Prince Harry told BBC they fell in love,
quote, "so incredibly quickly," that it seemed like proof the "stars were aligned."
Surprisingly, Prince Harry kept the engagement sentimentally simple. He
asked 36 year-old Meghan to marry him as they were cooking dinner at home. Meghan explained,
"It was so sweet and natural and very romantic, he got on one knee… Of course."
By this point in the relationship, Meghan's style had become a lot more conservative.
Her look had always been on the simpler side, but once she got engaged she took fewer risks,
adapting to the royal family's dress code, with longer hems and simple manicures.
In May of 2018, Meghan married Prince Harry in a
classic gown that slightly hung off of her shoulders.
In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Meghan and Prince Harry - now the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex - were expecting their first child together. The couple kicked off their
announcement with their first major royal tour, and Meghan slayed her maternity looks while on
the trip. She proudly showed off her visible baby bump, but the couple kept the gender a surprise.
Although Meghan's life had changed since becoming a royal,
she still managed to keep some parts of her life somewhat normal. According to People magazine,
Meghan returned to New York City in February 2019 to attend her baby shower.
The pair's son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on May 6th, 2018.
Meghan's time in the royal spotlight was far from easy. She was victim to countless malicious
articles from British tabloids that many chalked up to racism. By 2019, the critical environment
seemed to weigh heavily on the royal couple. In October of that year, Prince Harry released
an emotional letter to the public, which called out the British tabloids. He wrote,
"I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long.
To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in."
"I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum."
He also announced he would take the extraordinary step of suing the tabloids.
Citing what he perceived as an unfair "double standard" the press had for Meghan, Harry claimed,
"They have been able to create lie after lie at her expense
simply because she has not been visible while on maternity leave."
In an interview fo r the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey,
Meghan agreed with the interviewer that it had "been a struggle," and confessed,
"It's a lot. [...] It's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."
"I never thought that this would be easy,
but I thought it would be fair, and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile."
By January 2020, Meghan and Prince Harry decided it was time for a massive change.
They released a statement, saying, in part,
"We intend to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become
financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."
They also announced they would be spending their time between North America and England.
Their last official royal engagement was the Commonwealth Day service
at Westminster Abbey in London in March 2020.
Since the shocking announcement known as Megxit, Meghan has taken some public
speaking engagements. She's looking visibly happier since the restructuring of her role.
The family is said to be living in California since August 2020, according to ABC News.
As for her career trajectory, Meghan seems to be going back to her roots. In early 2020,
she signed a voiceover deal with Disney in return for a donation to a wildlife
charity. In September 2020, The New York Times reported that both she and Harry signed a, quote,
"megawatt Netflix deal" that will see the Duke and Duchess producing "documentaries, docu-series,
feature films, scripted shows and children's programming" over the course of several years.
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