A New Kind Of Royal

04.03.2022

Actress, activist, entrepreneur — she may be best known as the Duchess of Sussex now, but before she married Prince Harry and became mother to baby Archie, Meghan Markle led an accomplished, busy life in her own right

Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Doria, a clinical therapist and yoga instructor, and Thomas, a television lighting and photography director.

Meghan went to a private primary school in Hollywood and started campaigning for gender equality at an early age.

When she was 11, Markle wrote a letter to various notables, including then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, about a TV advertisement featuring the idea of women being bogged down by greasy cookware. The youngster deemed the ad sexist when male classmates started yelling, upon seeing the commercial, that the kitchen is where women belonged.

Though she was best known as an actress — most prominently as Rachel Zane in the American legal drama Suits — before she married into the royal family, Meghan also had plenty of other items in her long list of accomplishments prior to earning her royal title, including a double major in theater and international studies, a job as a freelance calligrapher, and a successful lifestyle blog.

In real life, Meghan’s union with Prince Harry wasn’t her first marriage. In September 2011, she wed film producer Trevor Engelson, but the pair divorced two years later.

Markle made international headlines when it was revealed in 2016 that she was seriously dating Prince Harry of Great Britain. The two met while Harry was attending the Invictus Games in Toronto, where Suits is filmed.

Meghan and Prince Harry got married at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on 19 May 2018.

On October 15, 2018, Markle and Prince Harry announced that they were expecting their first child in spring 2019.

The baby boy, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, arrived at 5:26 a.m. on May 6, 2019. Seventh in line to the British throne.

On January 8, 2020, after spending the holiday season in Canada, Meghan and Harry delivered the stunning announcement that they planned to “step back” from their senior roles in the royal family and work to become “financially independent.”

As for their future career plans, a big clue came when they reached a deal with streaming giant Netflix to make a range of programs, some of which they may appear in.