Being a member of The Firm isn't always easy, and to any royal fan,
it's clear that Meghan Markle's life has been filled with highs and lows. From the glitter of
her wedding day to the vicious tabloid articles, here are the best and worst days of Markle's life.
We think it's probably safe to say that the day that Prince Harry proposed was one of the happiest
of Meghan Markle's life. This was before she'd realized just how tough life in the public eye
would be — all she knew was that she was about to spend the rest of her life with the man she loved.
In their engagement interview with BBC in November 2017,
the couple told the adorable story of how Harry proposed.
"It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage."
Meghan said it was a cozy night,
and the two were roasting chicken when Harry suddenly dropped to one knee.
"Just an amazing surprise. It was so sweet and natural and very romantic."
Meghan went on to explain that she was so eager to
say ‘yes’ that she almost interrupted the proposal.
"She didn't even let me finish. She said, 'Can I say yes? Can I say yes?'"
At the beginning of their relationship, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were able
to enjoy a fairly normal courtship — falling in love as any couple would,
without the constant pressure of the paparazzi. However,
when the press caught on to the relationship in 2016, everything changed for Meghan.
The press were quick to pounce on Meghan after the relationship became public.
Apparently, Harry was quick to attack the media. When Harry confirmed that he and Meghan were
together in 2016, he said the two fought legal battles against defamatory stories,
according to the BBC. Stories even emerged of reporters trying to break into Meghan's home.
As Meghan revealed in a now infamous ITV interview, the press quickly became
one of the most difficult things she'd ever dealt with in her life.
"And also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I'm okay."
When she had started dating Harry, her friends had told her that the British tabloids would
destroy her life. While she didn't realize it at the time, her friends ended up being right.
From the moment they discovered her relationship with Harry,
her life was changed forever — and sadly, not for the better.
Before Meghan Markle married into the royal family, she was a successful Hollywood actress.
And before that, she was just like any other aspiring actress in Hollywood.
She worked a series of odd jobs while auditioning for pilot after pilot, waiting for her big break.
She reportedly worked as a freelance calligrapher and even spent time as a model on Deal Or No Deal.
We think it's safe to say that when Meghan was cast in Suits,
she finally made it as an actor. As she wrote in 2016 for Elle,
"My mom is sitting in my trailer, on a show in which I am a lead character,
and that has a viewership of more than 1.7 million.
It's surreal. We never would have dreamed that this would be my reality."
It's clear that the star was thrilled to have finally made it as an actress.
One of Markle's hardest experiences seems to have been her trip to South Africa with Prince Harry. At the time, she had just given birth to Archie,
so she was, quite understandably, completely exhausted. On the final day of the tour,
Meghan opened up about her mental health during an ITV interview, famously revealing she wasn't okay.
"I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair."
In an appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast one year later,
Meghan spoke about the day of the interview, saying,
"We were on a tour in South Africa and on the last day of the tour,
man I was tired. I was just about to give Archie a bath. [...] I was exhausted."
"It's— It's, um, hard."
Apparently, she was even breastfeeding Archie between engagements. As Meghan went
on to explain, the famous interview was the result of her exhaustion.
Meghan Markle's wedding to Prince Harry was easily one of the biggest weddings in royal history. For Meghan, the wedding was
her chance to take the next step with Harry. On the day, Harry and Meghan wrote on Instagram,
"Thank you for all of the love and support from so many of you around the world.
Each of you made this day even more meaningful."
Meghan explained her side of the story in an audio guide, saying,
"A great level of detail went into the planning of our wedding day. We knew how large the scale
of the event would be, so in making choices that were really personal and meaningful,
it could make the whole experience feel intimate."
Meghan's wedding dress even contained a scrap of
fabric from the outfit she wore on her first date with Harry.
In 2020, Meghan Markle wrote a remarkable piece for The New York Times, in which
she opened up about her devastating miscarriage from earlier that year.
Apparently, the miscarriage happened as she was changing Archie's diaper.
She wrote,
"After changing his diaper, I felt a sharp cramp.
I dropped to the floor with him in my arms, humming a lullaby to keep us both calm,
the cheerful tune a stark contrast to my sense that something was not right."
In the article, Meghan went on to describe how horrible the miscarriage was for her, writing,
"Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief,
experienced by many but talked about by few."
She explained that the event taught her the stark reality about just how frequent
miscarriages really are — in fact, 10 to 20% of women experience them, she wrote.
In 2019, Meghan Markle gave birth to her first child, Archie. It's clear that Meghan is a doting mother — and Archie's birth has most
certainly changed her life. It's safe to say that May 6, 2019, was one of the best days of her life,
as she welcomed her son into the world. Prince Harry told the press at the time,
"It's been the most amazing experience I could ever have possibly imagined."
"I'm so incredibly proud of my wife."
During Fortune's virtual summit in 2020,
Meghan explained just how much she had changed since becoming a mother, saying,
"It makes you more courageous, it makes you so concerned for the world they're going to inherit."
As she went on to explain, motherhood had made her begin to think more seriously
about how she would make the world a better place for her son. She said,
"I wouldn't be able to feel proud of myself as a mom if I didn't know
that I wasn't doing my part to make it a better place for him."
Meghan Markle has had a pretty complicated relationship with her father, Thomas Markle.
In an essay for Elle in 2016, Meghan called him, quote, "the most hardworking father." However,
in the lead-up to Meghan's wedding, things got quite tense. He reportedly staged
paparazzi photos, which are said to have embarrassed Meghan and the royal family.
Shortly after this, he suffered a heart attack, and it was announced two days before the big
day that he would be unable to attend his daughter's wedding. Meghan wrote at the time,
"Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding. I have always cared for
my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health."
It's clear that it was heartbreaking for the bride-to-be to realize that
her father wouldn't be able to walk her down the aisle — even
if his mistakes with the press had made their relationship more complicated.
After a difficult few years working as a full-time member of the royal family, Meghan Markle stepped back from royal life, moving with her family first
to Canada and then back to the States. For Meghan, this meant some much-needed respite and the chance
of a more normal life. In a conversation with the 19thNews in 2020, Meghan said she
has enjoyed the opportunity to use her voice in a way that she hadn't been able to before.
"Yeah, It's good to be home."
Not only did Meghan return to her home country, she also got to return to her old way of life.
Later in 2020, it was announced that Meghan and Harry would take on a huge producing deal
with Netflix — Meghan would be returning to her old world of film and TV. It seems that
the family's move away from the royal family and their return to the United States has been a huge
positive for Meghan. By the sounds of things, her future looks a lot more hopeful than it once did.
Even though it's no secret that royal life wasn't exactly what Meghan Markle hoped it would be, it's
clear that she found it hard to say goodbye to her husband's family and traditions. In fact, the day
of her final royal engagements was probably one of the hardest days of her life. According to a
journalist from Harper's Bazaar, Meghan's final official event came the day before the couple's
big move across the Atlantic. As the journalist revealed, Meghan was close to tears on the day.
In the book Finding Freedom, royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand
went into more detail about the emotional days prior to Meghan and Prince Harry's departure.
Apparently, during a private event at Buckingham Palace,
Meghan couldn't hold in the emotions any more and apparently cried in front of a few
reporters. Hugging one of the young female aides she had become close with, Meghan reportedly said,
"'I can't believe this is it."
Before marrying into the royal family, Meghan Markle was an actress — but she
was also an activist who was heavily involved in charity work. In a 2016 essay for Elle,
Meghan explained how rewarding and important her philanthropy had been for her. She recalled how,
in 2015, she had traveled to a refugee camp in Rwanda as a UN Women advocate, writing,
"I had a week of meetings with female parliamentarians in the city's capital,
Kigali, celebrating the fact that 64 percent of the Rwandan government are women."
Toward the end of her trip, she received an invitation to the BAFTA awards, and she went
on to explain that she found it hard to accept as it felt like such a different world than Rwanda.
It's clear that for Meghan, traveling around the world was a crucial part of
building her sense of self-worth. As she put it,
"When I share my photos with my friends,
they note that I never look happier than I do when I am on field missions.
It's a different smile than the one for the paparazzi — it doesn't require any retouching."
Falling in love with Prince Harry must have been a bittersweet experience for Meghan Markle.
While she and her husband are clearly very happy together, marrying into the royal family
did come with some downsides. In addition to the downside of the constant press attention,
Meghan also gave up her acting career when she married Harry.
Meghan explained in her engagement interview that her decision to quit
her profession wasn't entirely sad, saying,
"What's been really exciting, as we talk about this as the transition out of my career [...] is
that the causes that have been very important to me, I can focus even more energy on."
However, since stepping back from the royal family, Meghan has reportedly begun to think
about returning to the world of acting. As a friend told The Sun in March 2020,
"At the moment she is loving spending time with Archie and settling into her
new life with Harry. [...] But Meghan remains hugely ambitious and is very
open minded to a return to acting which is what she knows, loves, and does best."
Anyone who sees Meghan Markle and Prince Harry together has to admit that they are totally in
love. As Harry once said, he knew that Meghan was the one on their first date — but what about
Meghan? According to the book Finding Freedom, the date lasted three hours.
At the end of the date, the couple didn't kiss goodbye — but both were sure they'd see
each other again. Apparently, after their first date, Meghan called a friend to say,
"Do I sound crazy when I say this could have legs?"
It sounds like Meghan was smitten from day one.
In 2020, protests erupted around the world in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"No more silence."
"No justice, no peace!"
There were also counter-protests in some areas. It was a violent, dangerous,
and upsetting time for many people, particularly in the United States. For Meghan, the movement was
especially difficult to observe. In an interview with 19thNews, Meghan talked about her experience
observing the protests as a biracial woman who had recently returned to the United States.
"It was so sad to see where our country was in that moment."
While she found the division and racism in the country hard to watch,
she was able to take some positives from the movement. She said,
"If there's any silver lining in that, I would say that in the weeks after the murder of George
Floyd, in the peaceful protests that you were seeing, in the voices that were coming out,
in the way that people were actually owning their role, [...] it shifted from
sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration, because I can see that the tide is turning."
As any mother will probably tell you, giving birth is an emotional experience. At the end of a harrowing ordeal, you are left exhausted with a
brand new member of your family in your arms. So, it's safe to say that June 4, 2021, the day Meghan
Markle gave birth to her second child, was one of the best days of her life. The baby girl was named
Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor after her great-grandmother and grandmother.
In the couple’s famous interview with Oprah Winfrey prior to the birth of their daughter,
Harry revealed the gender of their baby.
"It's a girl."
And in a speech shown during Global Citizen's "VAX LIVE" event, Meghan
spoke about the upcoming birth of her daughter, saying that she and her husband were thrilled.
"When we think of her, we think of all the young women and girls
around the globe who must be given the ability and support to lead us forward."
The family released a statement at the time of Lilibet's birth, saying,
"She is more than we could have ever imagined,
and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we've felt from across the globe."
As a woman of mixed race, Meghan Markle received a huge amount of racist
criticism from the press when she married into Britain's royal family. Sadly, it seems
that she was also on the receiving end of some racist comments from members of the family too.
In her interview with Oprah, Meghan revealed that the "Firm," as the family is known,
didn't want to make her first child, Archie, a prince. She also explained that an unnamed
member of the family had expressed concerns about her future child's skin tone to Prince Harry.
"And also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born.”
She added,
"There were several conversations about it."
Apparently, the conversation had occurred between Harry and someone in the family,
although Meghan didn't want to say who that person was.
It's clear that Meghan Markle is a deeply creative person. Although she had to give up acting when
she joined the royal family, she has continued with other creative projects. One of her most
exciting projects was the children's book The Bench. As she revealed to NPR in June 2021,
the book was inspired by her first Father's Day gift to Prince Harry after the birth of their son.
She recalled,
"As most of us do, you go, what am I going to get them as a gift? And I thought I just wanted
something sentimental and a place for him to have as a bit of a home base with our son."
In the end, she wrote a poem for Harry, later expanding the
poem into a full children's book about fathers and sons, which became The Bench.
The summer of 2021 was certainly a tumultuous time for Meghan Markle and her family.
Not only was she pregnant with her second child,
but she was also gearing up for a huge public interview with Oprah that promised to reveal
several shocking secrets about her time living in the U.K. as part of the royal family.
Preparing for the interview was undoubtedly a stressful experience. So, when members of her
old staff team publicly accused her of workplace bullying just a few days before the interview,
it seems that Meghan was overwhelmed. In the Oprah Winfrey docuseries The Me You Can't See,
Prince Harry said that Meghan had broken down in tears after she heard about the
accusations. Apparently, he woke up to find her crying quietly in the middle of the night.
Meghan has denied all of the bullying accusations,
though we think we can safely say that this day was one of the hardest of her life.
While doing the explosive "tell-all" interview with Oprah couldn't have been an easy experience
for Meghan and Harry, it's clear that it was something she felt she had to do.
In fact, in the epilogue to the book Finding Freedom, it was revealed that Meghan felt
that a huge weight had been lifted off her chest when the interview was over.
One source told the book's authors that the interview had been cathartic for her, saying,
"All the things she had kept to herself or been too afraid to say [as a working
member of the royal family] she felt safe to finally share. It was liberating."
It sounds like getting the truth out about her
experience with the royal family was exactly what Meghan needed.
Giving birth to a member of the royal family was a hugely stressful ordeal
for Meghan Markle. She had already experienced the obsessive attention of the British press,
so she knew her child was not in for an easy life. However,
she had always believed that the royal family would support her and her children.
As Meghan revealed in her conversation with Oprah, she was shocked to learn that her
future child wouldn't receive the protection and respect she thought they deserved. First of all,
she learned that her child wouldn't be made a prince or princess. She was also
told that because her child wouldn't have a title, they also wouldn't get any security.
For Meghan, this was terrible news. She told Oprah,
"Okay, well, he needs to be safe, so we're not saying don't make him a prince or princess,
but if you're saying the title is what's going to affect that protection,
we haven't created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid
fodder. You've allowed that to happen, which means our son needs to be safe."
That must have been a difficult day for Meghan.
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