Since her relationship with Prince Harry became public back in 2016, Meghan Markle has become
one of the most scrutinized celebrities in the world. And the more fans learn about her,
the more fascinated they are. Here are some bizarre facts you may not know about Meghan
Markle.
One of the most surprising facts about Meghan is that Meghan isn't actually her real first
name. The duchess' birth name is actually Rachel Meghan.
"Do you know that my first name is Rachel in real life, did you know that?"
"I had no idea!"
"So I was born Rachel Meghan Markle."
Funnily enough, Rachel was also the name of her character on the show Suits. Apparently,
the Queen had to use Meghan's full name when she officially blessed her marriage to Prince
Harry.
As Harper's Bazaar pointed out, it's not totally clear why Meghan goes by her middle name.
It may be that she prefers Meghan as a stage name. It might also be the case that her parents
have always called her by her middle name since she was young. In fact, Harry also goes
by a slightly different name and has since birth — his real name is Henry! Regardless
of why Meghan ditched her first name, it's hard to imagine calling her Rachel.
Before Meghan was a duchess, she was a famous actor — but what you may not know is that
she had a few other interesting jobs before her acting career took off. One of these jobs
was working as a professional calligrapher. That's right — she was a fancy handwriting
pro! Not a bad skill for a duchess.
As Meghan told Esquire in 2018, she picked up calligraphy when she was still in school.
She explained,
"It was because I went to an all-girls Catholic school for like six years during the time
when kids actually had handwriting class."
Apparently, cursive writing came to her naturally. So, instead of waiting tables in between acting
jobs, she ended up working as a freelance calligrapher. She even revealed that she did
the handwriting on Robin Thicke and Paula Patton's wedding invitations.
It turns out, one of Meghan's lifelong passions is yoga. She told Best Health that yoga is,
quote, "her thing" — and she apparently started much earlier than most people. The
duchess revealed that she had been introduced to yoga through her mother, who is a yoga
instructor. In fact, she even did "mommy-and-me" classes from the age of seven. She recalled
that at first, she found it pretty hard, but her mom told her,
"Flower, you will find your practice — just give it time."
By the time she was in college, she was hooked. While working as an actor, Meghan got into
a habit of doing several hot yoga classes a week with her favorite instructor, who she
gushed about. She said,
"He is so positive, and especially in my industry, it's so important to surround yourself with
people who are grounded and really optimistic."
Sounds like some positive hot yoga sessions would have helped her get through the stress
of joining the royal family, too.
Acting is a notoriously hard profession to break into. Most actors find themselves doing
a few strange acting jobs before their big break. For Meghan, it was no different. One
of her first acting jobs was definitely a little odd, especially for a future duchess.
She worked as one of the "briefcase girls" on Deal or No Deal. Meghan explained to Esquire,
"I would put that [job] into the category of things I was doing while I was auditioning
to try to make ends meet."
She went on to explain that she started the job right after working at the U.S. Embassy
in Argentina. Talk about a change of pace!
Even though it was far from being her dream job, Meghan managed to find the bright side,
explaining that it was a "learning experience." She diplomatically added,
"It helped me to understand what I would rather be doing."
It's no big surprise that the Duchess of Sussex has some impressive friends. But as it turns
out, Meghan's list of famous friends may not be exactly what you'd expect. For instance,
the duchess is reportedly BFFs with tennis pro Serena Williams. As Meghan wrote in her
blog in 2014, she and Williams met at DirecTV's Celebrity Beach Bowl and hit it off right
away. She explained,
"[We were] taking pictures, laughing through the flag football game we were both playing
in, and chatting not about tennis or acting, but about all the good old fashioned girly
stuff."
Later that year, Meghan supported her friend at the U.S. Open Championship. When Williams
won the Grand Slam, Meghan reportedly posted an Instagram photo from the stands to congratulate
her.
It's well known that the royals absolutely love their tennis. In fact, Meghan attended
the Wimbledon Championships in 2019 to watch her friend compete.
It's hard to imagine Meghan ever going through an awkward teen phase. With her perfectly
sleek hair, glowing complexion, and impeccable style, the duchess is pretty much always pulled
together and looking her best. But as she revealed to Esquire, she wasn't always quite
so chic — especially in comparison to her dad's glamorous colleagues. She explained
that she spent most nights at work with her dad, saying,
"My dad was a lighting director and director of photography for Married...with Children.
[...] Which is a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school
uniform to grow up."
As Meghan recalled, she didn't exactly fit in with the cast. She said,
"Just picture me with my curly hair and a gap in my teeth and my little school uniform
with Keds on, looking up like, 'Hi,' at these very, uh, provocative women."
No need to panic, but it turns out, Meghan and her husband Prince Harry are actually
related — very, very distantly. As the Daily Mail reported, the couple share an ancestor
who lived during the 15th century. Apparently, the connection stems from Meghan's grandmother
on her father's side. Her late grandmother wasn't exactly living the life of a royal
— in fact, she worked at a dollar store. Nevertheless, she did share an ancestor with
the royals.
This ancestor had once been the High Sheriff of County Durham, and one of his grandchildren's
genealogical line leads to the Markle family, while another grandchild's line leads directly
to the Queen Mother. Seems like Meghan had always come from royal blood. Not only that,
on her paternal grandfather's side, she is also descended from German ancestors who had
their own coat of arms.
It's pretty common for people to want to copy their favorite celebrities when it comes to
their look — some people even go as far as to get plastic surgery. As it turns out,
Meghan has one specific feature that is incredibly popular. According to E! News, plastic surgeons
have claimed that Meghan has the most popular nose. Dr. Stephen T. Greenberg, MD, explained
in November of 2017,
"Patients started coming to see me about six months ago requesting Meghan's nose."
Apparently, her nose became more and more popular as her relationship with Prince Harry
progressed. As Dr. Greenberg went on to explain, Meghan's nose has a "refined" appearance.
He added,
"Let's face it. She's gorgeous but she also comes across like the girl next door."
Like many of us, Meghan has a slightly embarrassing celebrity crush. Even though the duchess is
happily married to Prince Harry, she wasn't ashamed to admit that she has a bit of a thing
for actor Dennis Quaid. He may not frequently be considered one of Hollywood's biggest hunks,
but Meghan stands by her crush. As she said to Best Health in 2016,
"You're going to laugh at who my male celebrity crush is but I'll never let it go. I love
Dennis Quaid."
She went on to explain that she also has a girl crush on former U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright. Meghan gushed,
"She learned German on bed rest, how impressive is that!?"
In what some people may have seen as a controversial move, Meghan actually redesigned her wedding
ring. As Town & Country reported, Meghan was spotted in 2019, after the birth of her son
Archie, with a brand new eternity band on her ring finger. Most people assumed the ring
was a gift from Prince Harry to honor the birth of Archie or potentially their first
wedding anniversary.
In addition to her new ring, Meghan was also sporting a redesigned engagement ring. By
the looks of things, the ring was reset and the band was changed from a solid gold band
to a band with tiny diamonds.
There's plenty of speculation about why the duchess changed her wedding ring band. Some
thought it may be due to her fingers swelling during pregnancy. Others thought it may be
an attempt to make her jewelry more cohesive. Luckily, Meghan didn't alter the ring too
much — the three main diamonds remained. As Harry revealed in their first interview
with the BBC, two of those diamonds came from a very special place.
"The little diamonds on the side are from my mother's jewelry collection."
We all have our own unique quirks, and it seems that the Duchess of Sussex is no different.
According to certain royal commentators, Meghan has the slightly bizarre habit of staring
at her husband Prince Harry during video conference calls. As the Express reported, some people
noticed that when Harry was speaking, Meghan tended to turn to look at her husband intently,
rather than looking into the camera as most people tend to do during a video call.
As one commentator said on ET Canada,
"It always trips me out when Meghan stares at Harry while he's talking. I'm always like,
'What are you looking at? Is there something in his teeth?'"
While it's definitely funny to watch the pair on video conference calls once you notice
Meghan's habit, it's probably safe to assume her "staring" is simply just good manners.
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